Former Pak Finance Minister to be arrested for derailing IMF deal

Islamabad: The Pak Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) has sought permission from the Interior Ministry to arrest former Finance Minister Shaukat Tarin in a case pertaining to his alleged role in the derailment of the deal with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), a media outlet reported.

The FIA completed a preliminary inquiry into Tarin's audio leaks and saw his leaked conversations as an 'attempt to disrupt' the IMF loan programme and funds, thereby 'causing harm' to the national interest, Dawn reported.

The probe agency sought approval of the Interior Ministry to initiate legal proceedings against Tarin, leading to his arrest, the media outlet reported, citing sources.

Two audio leaks had surfaced in August 2022 in which a man purportedly former minister Tarin can be heard guiding Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) and Punjab finance ministers, belonging to the PTI, to tell the PDM coalition government in the Centre and the IMF that they would not be able to commit to a provincial budget surplus in light of the monsoon floods that wrought havoc across Pakistan.

In a notice issued to Tarin in September 2022, the FIA said that an inquiry had been initiated against his alleged role on the basis of the audio leak. "In it, you are provoking him (Taimur Saleem Khan Jhagra, Finance Minister of KP) to write a letter to the federal government on behalf of the KP government that it will not return extra money of the fiscal budget so that interruption may be created between IMF and the Government of Pakistan."