ISLAMABAD: The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) has asked permission from the Ministry of Interior to arrest former finance minister Shaukat Tarin in a case pertaining to his alleged role in the derailment of the accord with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) (IMF).
Informed sources informed Dawn the FIA that conducted a preliminary examination into Tarin’s audio leaks considered Tarin’s leaked chats as an ‘attempt to disrupt’ the IMF loan programme and funding, so creating harm to the national interest.
The FIA sought clearance of the interior ministry to launch legal proceedings against Mr Tarin, leading to his arrest, the sources stated.
Two audio leaks had surfaced in August last year in which a man purportedly ex-minister Tarin can be heard guiding Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab finance ministers, belonging to the PTI, to tell the PDM coalition government in the centre and the IMF that they would not be able to commit to a provincial budget surplus in light of the monsoon floods that wrought havoc across Pakistan.
The interior ministry’s consent sought to launch legal proceedings against ex-minister
In a notification given to Mr Tarin in September 2022, the FIA claimed a probe had been opened against his alleged role on the basis of the audio leak. “In it, you are inciting him [Mr Jhagra] to write a letter to the federal government on behalf of the KP government that it will not return extra money of the fiscal budget so that disruption may be created between IMF and the Government of Pakistan.”
The agency, subsequently, directed the former finance minister to appear in person to record a version/statement in his defence at the FIA Cybercrime Reporting Centre.
In the phone discussions, Mr Tarin was allegedly pressing Mohsin Leghari and Taimur Jhagra to execute a volte-face citing provincial surplus.
“We merely wanted the provincial finance minister to write to the federal government so “pressure falls on these b******* … they’re jailing us, laying terrorism charges against us and they’re going away entirely scot-free. We can’t allow this to happen,” the voice supposedly of Tarin’s is heard warning Mr Leghari.
In the same audio tape, when Mr Leghari asks Mr Tarin if the activity would affect the state, the latter responds: “Well … simply speaking, isn’t the state suffering the way they are treating your chairman and anyone else? This will surely happen that the IMF will ask ‘where will you organise the money from’ and they (the government) would bring another mini-budget.”
Mr Tarin said it could not be permitted “they mistreat us and we stand on one side and they blackmail us in the name of the state and seek for help and we keep aiding them”.
Later in the recorded communication, Mr Tarin tells Mr Leghari that the mechanism of the information’s distribution to the public would be decided later. “We will do something so it doesn’t look we are hurting the state but we should at least convey the facts that you won’t be able to give [budget surplus] therefore our pledge is zero.”
In the other tape, Mr Tarin can be heard asking Mr Jhagra whether he had made up a similar letter. “[The IMF pledge] is a blackmailing tool and no one will release money regardless. I won’t release them, I don’t know about Leghari,” said the man said to be Mr Jhagra.
The former federal minister claims the letter, once drafted, would also be forwarded to the IMF representative so “these b******* know that the money they were pressuring us into donating will be held by us”. Mr Tarin, though, argued the audio was ‘tampered’. It was a crime to tap someone’s communication, which was disclosed after being tampered with, he noted.
