National December 15, 2020 ISLAMABAD: Former finance minister Dr Hafeez A Pasha has said Pakistan has no option but to go back to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) programme. He was speaking at a plenary of 4-day 23rd Sustainable Development Conference (SDC) panel titled “Economic Growth, Social Protection, and the IMF Programme amid COVID-19”. He said Pakistan did not have a big number of COVID-19 cases compared with other developed and developing nations, but still it had seen significant reduction in the GDP growth. Our independent estimate is that growth fell by -2.5% during fiscal year 2019-20 and will only remain 1% during the ongoing fiscal year. This is the largest decline since early 2000s. Almost 70% of the displaced workers are from the informal sector, which will bring implications for welfare, he added.