Sabotaging IMF programme
Tarin urges government to renegotiate and seek relief from the IMF in the wake of catastrophic floods
ISLAMABAD
As Pakistan resumed its month-long stalled International Monetary Fund (IMF) programme, the blame game between the coalition government and PTI carried on as well, with the latest development being the war of words between Finance Minister Miftah Ismail and his predecessor Shaukat Tarin on Saturday.
Former finance minister and PTI leader Shaukat Tarin Saturday, addressing a press conference, blamed the coalition government for releasing his alleged audio leak on the day when the IMF executive board was scheduled to meet. “If you wanted to leak my alleged audio then you should have done that before,” he said, reiterating that the coalition government was levelling baseless allegations against him.
On Monday, two audio clips surfaced via TV channels and social media in which a man said to be Tarin can be heard guiding Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab’s finance ministers to tell the federal government and the IMF that they would not be able to commit to a provincial budget surplus in light of the recent floods that have wreaked havoc in Pakistan.
The audios invited criticism against the PTI as the coalition government alleged that they were nothing but a conspiracy to derail the state’s deal with the global lender.
“They [coalition government] are blaming us for sabotaging the IMF deal; however, those who leaked the tapes mere hours before the IMF board meeting were the people who wanted to jeopardise the deal,” he said.
Tarin said that the leaders of all political parties, including PTI, should stop distributing “certificates of treason” among leaders.
“We [PTI] never labelled anybody from the then Opposition as traitor in regards of the IMF programme when we were in power,” Tarin said, adding that he returned to Pakistan and left behind a salary worth Rs5 million and “I am being called a traitor.”
He urged the government to renegotiate and seek relief from the Washington-based lender in the wake of catastrophic floods. “Go to them and ask them for relief. After that go to Russia and buy discounted oil. Give people relief on petrol and gas [prices]. Increase your tax revenue rather than burdening the masses,” the PTI leader said.
The former finance minister said that if PTI would have been in power they would have ended the IMF programme by September; while the coalition government sought an extension.
