Islamabad (HRNW) An alleged ploy to scuttle the country’s agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) surfaced on Monday when Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf leader Shaukat Tarin’s phone call to Punjab and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa finance ministers were made public.
During the phone call, the former finance minister, Tarin, can be heard directing Mohsin Leghari and Taimur Jhagra to backtrack from the commitment of a provincial surplus given to the IMF.
Hours after the audio was leaked, PTI’s Asad Umar confirmed its authenticity but said that it was tampered with before being released.
In the phone calls, Tarin tells Punjab’s financial czar to prepare a letter along the aforementioned lines and cite the prevailing flood emergency as the reason “for not being able to honor the commitment.”
Tarin also mentions that he has also given the same instructions to Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Finance Minister Taimur Jhagra. “Taimur said he knows the second-top most person at the IMF in Pakistan and will leak the letter to him.”
The PTI leader further said, “That’s all we want so that the incumbent government can be pressurized,” adding that “they should be taught a lesson for creating hardships for Imran Khan.”
When Leghari questioned if the state would suffer when the IMF deal is sabotaged, Tarin said, “Isn’t the state suffering because of the way they treat your chairman (Imran Khan) and everybody else.”
The former finance czar requested Leghari to send him the letter, as Taimur is also sending it within an hour.