Pakistan will chair the Boards of Governors for both the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank Group (WBG) in 2027. Ahad Khan Cheema was named as chair during a plenary session of the 2026 WBG-IMF Annual Meetings held in Bangkok.
This appointment represents the first time Pakistan has held chairmanship of these boards since 1953. Cheema received a briefing from the WBG Corporate Secretariat regarding his responsibilities as chair and met with Aradhana Kumar-Capoor to coordinate institutional support.
The Pakistani representative also met with Carlos Carvallo Spalding, the outgoing chair and governor of the Central Bank of Paraguay. More than 15,000 participants from 191 countries attended the annual meetings, which took place from 12 to 18 October 2026.
Pakistan is currently negotiating with the IMF for a $1.4 billion Resilience and Sustainability Facility (RSF) and a $7 billion Extended Fund Facility (EFF). Following a staff-level agreement, the country qualified to draw approximately $1.2 billion from Fund resources.
Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb met World Bank Group President Ajay Banga at a dinner hosted by the prime minister of Thailand. Aurangzeb noted that Pakistan's fiscal deficit has dropped to a 22-year low and the nation has achieved primary surpluses for three consecutive years.
Pakistan Television reported that "The occasion provided an opportunity for informal interaction alongside the ongoing high-level engagements at the annual meetings."
