{
  "id": 5237510,
  "title": "Pakistan pushes ADB for more funding for ML-1, public-private partnerships",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/09/03/pakistan-pushes-adb-for-more-funding-for-ml-1-public-private",
  "topic": "finance",
  "section": "Finance & Markets",
  "published": "2026-09-03T03:16:01.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Dawn Business",
    "slug": "dawn-business",
    "url": "https://www.dawn.com/news/2027104/pakistan-pushes-adb-for-more-funding-for-ml-1-public-private-partnerships"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "Islamabad: The Asian Development Bank (ADB) is being urged to provide increased financial support for Pakistan's flagship project, the Karachi-Peshawar Main Railway Line (ML-1), as well as for public-private partnerships. An ADB delegation, led by Vice President for South, Central and West Asia, Yingming Yang, is currently in Islamabad to discuss the $10 billion project as part of the bank's Country Partnership Strategy 2026-30, approved in March.\n\nPakistan has already received $2 billion in financing from the ADB for the 1670-km ML-1 project, which is currently under implementation. The Economic Affairs Division is reportedly in talks with the ADB to explore additional facilities, such as guarantees and private partnerships.\n\nEconomic Affairs Minister Ahad Khan Cheema discussed the government's key development priorities, including fiscal, structural, and governance reforms, during his meeting with the ADB delegation. He emphasized that these measures, implemented over the past three to four years, have helped restore confidence and create a solid foundation for sustainable economic growth and macroeconomic stability. Cheema also highlighted the ML-1 project as a national flagship project and expressed the government's priority for privatization, stating that effective frameworks for public-private partnerships are being developed.\n\nADB Vice-President welcomed the improvements in Pakistan's sovereign credit ratings and praised the government's initiative to introduce project readiness reforms. He noted that ADB's involvement provides an opportunity to introduce innovative financing instruments, such as policy-based guarantees and Panda bonds. The ADB official also acknowledged the strong progress made on the ML-1 project and reaffirmed the bank's commitment to working closely with the government to facilitate the early groundbreaking of the project.",
  "summary": "https://www.dawn.com/news/2027093",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}