FIA decides to arrest Shaukat Tarin in IMF audio leak case. The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) has asked permission from the Ministry of Interior to arrest PTI leader and former finance minister Shaukat Tarin in connection with an alleged leaked audio call in which he asked former Khyber Pakhtukhwa minister Taimoor Saleem Jhagra to write a letter to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) pressuring the coalition government.
According to reports, the agency has completed its investigation into the case and has decided to take legal action against the finance czar for his suspected attempt to derail the IMF loan program. The FIA also decided that Tarin intended to harm national interests and security.
The audio leader had been sent to the FIA for investigation by the PDM-led government, which is scrambling to revive the loan programme amid depleting foreign exchange reserves.
FIA decides to arrest Shaukat Tarin in IMF audio leak case. The controversy surfaced last year in August when Tarin asked the then Punjab and KP ministers to backtrack from IMF commitments ahead of the final meeting of the global lender for approval of the loan for the South Asian country facing a severe economic crisis.
In the phone call, Pakistan’s former finance chief is apparently asking Mohsin Leghari and Taimur Jhagra to do a volte-face citing provincial surplus.
The Pakistani senator can be heard asking KP finance minister Taimoor Jhagra if he had prepared the letter, to which the latter responded by saying he would submit the letter as soon as he finished drafting it.
Tarin then instructed the KP finance chief to emphasize flood destruction in the letter. The first objective would be the immediate disbursement of cash for infrastructure restoration and flood-affected residents.
He further compared the maneuver to a blackmailing strategy, saying that no one ever gave money without a gambit.
