Pakistan has long been in a state of grave economic turmoil.

Political instability, corruption, mismanagement, the COVID-19 pandemic, a global energy crisis, and climate change-induced natural disasters have all taken a heavy toll on the economy.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif's newly-formed government is currently seeking another bailout from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to tackle the country's acute balance-of-payments crisis.

"We couldn't survive without yet another IMF program," Sharif told a meeting in the Pakistani capital Islamabad last week that was broadcast live.

His comments came a day after the IMF agreed a provisional, or staff-level agreement, with Pakistan, which, if approved by its board, would disburse the last tranche of $1.1 billion (€1.02 billion) under an existing $3 billion standby arrangement that expires on April 11.

The US-based lender has already said it will formulate a medium-term program if Islamabad applies for it.

The Pakistan government has not officially stated the size of the additional funding it is seeking under the long-term bailout.

To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5........

© Deutsche Welle