Web Desk (LTN NEWS): Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) called Shaukat Tarin, a former finance minister, and leader of the PTI, on Tuesday to talk about an audio call he made to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s finance minister, Taimoor Saleem Jhagra, telling him to write a letter to the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
Tarin has been asked to meet with the agency on September 21 at 10 a.m.
The FIA notice said, “If you don’t show up, it means you have nothing to say in your defense.”
Last month, before the IMF board meeting to approve Pakistan’s bailout plan, the leader of the PTI called the finance ministers of Punjab and KP and asked them to write letters to the IMF to back out of the commitment to the surplus budget.
The audio leaks backed up the idea that the KP finance minister’s letter to Miftah Ismail last week, in which he threatened to pull out of the IMF commitment, was an attempt to stop the government from stabilizing the economy.
Read There is no chance of default in Pakistan: Miftah
Shaukat Tarin can be heard on the leaked audio asking Jhagra if he wrote the letter.
“I’m getting there. I have the letter before this one. “Once I write the letter, I’ll send it to you,” the KP finance minister said.
Tarin told Jhagra that the flood damage in the province should be the main point of his letter.
“The first point of the letter would be that we need a lot of money to fix up infrastructure and help flood victims get back on their feet,” Tarin told the KP finance minister. He added that he had already told Punjab’s finance minister, Muhammad Mohsin Khan Leghari, about this.
“By the way, this is a way to get money,” he said. “But no one gives money.”
The KP finance minister was told by Tarin to send the letter today. He insisted that the IMF would receive a copy of the letter.
