The leader of Pakistan’s Pakistan Tehreek e Insaf (PTI) political party, Senator Shaukan Tarin, has been charged with sedition for leaking audio recordings that allegedly affected the release of funds from the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Tarin, who also served as Minister of Finance, is in custody.
Pakistan’s Federal Investigation Agency has charged Tarin for the publication on the Internet of audio recordings from a year ago in which Tarin himself and the then finance councilors of the provinces of Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa appear and in which he asks them to write to the IMF retracting their budget commitments on the grounds that they were signed before the severe floods that affected the country, reports Geo TV.
«You have signed a commitment to the IMF for a budget surplus of 750 billion rupees — nearly 2.6 billion euros –. You have to tell them that the commitment is from before the floods and now you have to spend because of the floods. You have to tell them that we are not going to be able to fulfill our commitment,» Tarin argued in the leaked conversation with Punjab Finance Advisor Mohsin Leghari.
In a second phone conversation, this time with Jiber Pakhtunkhwa Finance Advisor Taimur Jhagra, Tarin asked him to stress in the letter on the huge needs arising from the floods. «It’s really a blackmail tactic,» Tarin said.
The audios were released on the day the IMF leadership was to consider a request to release a new $1.2 billion tranche of the loan agreed with Islamabad, prompting the government to accuse the PTI of trying to sabotage the deal.
Source: (EUROPA PRESS)
