Pakistan is in the final stages of negotiating an IMF bailout to the tune of 6 to 8 billion dollars. Experts say the bailout is now more likely after Prime Minister Imran Khan has reshuffled his economic team. Our correspondent Danial Khan has more in this report.

Prime Minister Imran Khan has removed the governor of the country's reserve bank, replacing him with an economist from the IMF. A move that has drawn wide range of criticism from opposition parties. But experts say the new team would be in a better position to translate the IMF's message to the government.

DANIAL KHAN REPORTER "Pakistan is in need of the financial aid to ease a balance-of-payment crisis triggered by high fiscal and current-account deficits and shrinking foreign exchange reserves. Pakistan has already taken over a dozen IMF support packages since the 1980s."

Pakistan is negotiating a loan package with the IMF. The talks were interrupted twice in the past over various disagreements, including the exchange rate policy.

Some experts say the government had other options than going to the IMF.

ASHFAQUE HASAN KHAN ECONOMIC ADVISORY COUNCIL, GOV'T OF PAKISTAN "The IMF program has always been a political program. If you are standing on the right side of the US, the intensity, the nature and the design of the program will be much kinder. If you look at the economic conditions that this government inherited, I think it was in the worst shape. There is no doubt about it, but the main challenge was the balance of payment challenge, and it emerged from astronomical rise in our import, so curbing import was the solution."

Imran Khan's government will announce its first budget in June. Experts say an IMF agreement could attract more stable financing by opening options for budget support from other lenders like the World Bank and ADB, and improve access to bilateral sources and global capital markets.

Danial Khan, CGTN, Islamabad.