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Politics

Imran Khan under fire after Pakistan fails to find offshore oil

Critics say prime minister trying to deflect attention from massive IMF loan

When government officials abruptly revealed  that the drilling project had been abandoned after its failure to find any gas or oil reserves, Khan and his government faced rapidly mounting criticism.   © Reuters

ISLAMABAD -- Prime Minister Imran Khan has come under fire after his government abandoned an offshore drilling project due to failure to find any oil and gas, with some critics saying he had announced the doomed plans to deflect attention from the massive loan it was negotiating with the International Monetary Fund.

Pakistan began negotiating the $6 billion IMF loan last year in the hopes of staving off a balance of payments crisis. But with tough conditions attached to the loan, the prime minister and some of his fellow cabinet members were quick to announce "good news" in the form of the drilling project, critics said.

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