Pakistan to chair IMF and World Bank Boards of Governors, first time since 1953

Pakistan will chair the Boards of Governors of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank Group next year, the first time it has held the chair since 1953, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said on Friday 16 October 2026. Federal Minister for Economic Affairs Ahad Khan Cheema, who is Pakistan's governor at the World Bank, was announced as the incoming chair at the plenary session of the 2026 IMF and World Bank Annual Meetings in Bangkok, Dawn reported.

The ministry called it a "historic milestone". ARY News, which also reported the appointment, put the gap at 74 years.

What the chair actually does

Every member country has a governor on each Board of Governors, usually its finance or economy minister or central bank governor. The boards meet once a year, at the Annual Meetings, and the chair rotates among members. The chair presides over that plenary and speaks for the governors for a year.

It is a ceremonial and agenda-setting role. It does not give Pakistan a bigger vote, a bigger quota or easier terms on its own loan: day-to-day lending decisions are made by the Executive Boards, where Pakistan sits in a constituency with other countries.

Cheema told officials his priorities would be "strengthening the voice of developing countries", predictable development finance, better coordination between multilateral lenders and bringing in private capital, Dawn reported. In Bangkok he was briefed by the World Bank's corporate secretariat and met its corporate secretary, Aradhana Kumar-Capoor, and the outgoing chair, Paraguay's central bank governor Carlos Carvallo Spalding.

The meetings in Bangkok

The Annual Meetings run from 12 to 18 October 2026 and drew more than 15,000 participants from 191 countries. Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb is leading Pakistan's delegation and met World Bank President Ajay Banga at a dinner hosted by the Thai prime minister, PTV reported.

Where Pakistan's IMF programme stands

The chair arrives while Pakistan is still a borrower:

• $7 billion Extended Fund Facility (EFF), the main loan.
• $1.4 billion Resilience and Sustainability Facility (RSF), for climate spending.
• Earlier this month the two sides reached a staff-level agreement on the fourth EFF review and the third RSF review, which makes about $1.2 billion available once the IMF's Executive Board approves it.

At today's interbank rate of about Rs 277 to the dollar, that tranche is roughly Rs 332 billion. Our dollar rate page carries the daily rate and the currency converter does the arithmetic for any amount.

What it means for you

Nothing changes in your bills or taxes because of the chair itself. The things that move prices here are the conditions in the IMF programme: the petrol levy, electricity tariffs and tax targets. Those are set in the reviews, not by who presides at the Annual Meetings.