An alleged leaked audio between Shaukat Tarin and Mohsin Leghari has stormed into social media, opening up a new Pandora box of controversy.
ISLAMABAD: (UrduPoint/Pakistan Point News-August 29th, 2022) A new controversy has taken place after an alleged audio tape between PTI leader Shaukat Tarin and Punjab Finance Minister Mohsin Leghari has gone viral on social media in which the former is asking the latter to withdraw from International Monetary Fund's (IMF) deal.
The tape has emerged just two days after the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government backtracked from it.
The PTI has government in Punjab and KPK and the latest phone call is an evidence of differences between the federation and the provinces that started soon after Imran Khan was ousted from the power.
The development has taken place after the moment when IMF's executive board is due to meet today to release $1.2b tranche under the Extended Fund Facility (EFF).
However, the economists predict that the IMF deal will be successful as all the requirments have been fulfilled by the Federal government.
But it is quite clear that if the Fund does not release the trance under EFF it will be a huge damage to the country's economy.
The latest reports suggested that the KP government had already written a letter while the Punjab government has yet to write it.
According to the alleged leaked audio, former Finance Minister Shaukat Tarin is heard asking Leghari to tell the IMF that the committment made by Punjab was pre-floods and now it cannot honor it.
"You have made a Rs750 billion [surplus] commitment with the IMF. You should tell them now that the commitment you made was before the floods, and now [Punjab] has to spend a lot of funds for [the] floods [rehabilitation]," Tarin is heard saying.
Tarin said, "You need to say that now we will not be able to honor that committment. This is all that I want to tell you,".
Tarin asked Leghari to write a letter and send it to him for vetting so it could be sent to the federal government and later on to the IMF representative in Pakistan.
Leghari while responding to Tarin's request asked whether Pakistan would suffer if Punjab — the largest province of Pakistan — withdraws from the deal.
On it, Tarin responded ," Is the state not suffering already because of what they are doing with your chairman [Imran Khan] and everybody else,".
Tarin said the IMF would ask the federal government about its plan to lend money.
The former finance minister also stated that this could not go on further as the party could not tolerate being mistreated and not responded.
"We cannot be blackmailed," he further said.
Another leaked audio also went viral on the social media in which Tarin is heard asking the KPK Finance Minister Taimur Khan Jhaghra whether he had written the letter.
The KP Finance Minister said he was on his way and he had a previous letter.
"I will send the letter to you soon after drafting it," the KP minister responded to Tarin.
Tarin asked Jhagra to mention the latest flood situation in the letter as a main point to withdraw from the deal.
Tarin asked him to write that they need huge financial aid for restoration and rehabilitation of flood affectees, adding that he had already explain it all to finance minister of Punjab.
In the call, he also is heard saying , "By the way, it is a blackmailing tactic,".
"Becaue nobody leaves money," he added.
