Pakistan to ask IMF if country gets no other help

Pakistan will ask the International Monetary Fund for a bailout package in less than two weeks if it can not secure other funding, the official in charge of the effort to stabilize the crisis-wracked country said Tuesday.

But an IMF program would be politically unpopular in Pakistan because it likely would come with painful conditions to cut government spending that could affect programs for the poor.

In talks with a British envoy on Tuesday, Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari "underlined the government could ill afford financial assistance from the IMF with tough conditions," the Pakistani Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

Zardari …