Sabotaging IMF programme
\nTarin urges government to renegotiate and seek relief from the IMF in the wake of catastrophic floods
\nISLAMABAD
\nAs 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.
\nFormer 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. \u201cIf you wanted to leak my alleged audio then you should have done that before,\u201d he said, reiterating that the coalition government was levelling baseless allegations against him.
\nOn 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\u2019s 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.
\nThe audios invited criticism against the PTI as the coalition government alleged that they were nothing but a conspiracy to derail the state\u2019s deal with the global lender.
\n\u201cThey [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,\u201d he said.
\nTarin said that the leaders of all political parties, including PTI, should stop distributing \u201ccertificates of treason\u201d among leaders.
\n\u201cWe [PTI] never labelled anybody from the then Opposition as traitor in regards of the IMF programme when we were in power,\u201d Tarin said, adding that he returned to Pakistan and left behind a salary worth Rs5 million and \u201cI am being called a traitor.\u201d
\nHe urged the government to renegotiate and seek relief from the Washington-based lender in the wake of catastrophic floods. \u201cGo 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,\u201d the PTI leader said.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":281372,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-281349","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business"},"yoast_head":"\n