Daily Times

A new front has opened up in the ongoing blame game between the ruling coalition and PTI, with former finance minister and PTI leader Shaukat Tarin blaming the coalition government for releasing his alleged audio leak on the day when the IMF executive board was scheduled to meet. Addressing a press conference in Islamabad on Saturday, Shaukat Tarin said, “If you wanted to leak my alleged audio, then you should have done that before. You are leveling baseless allegations against me”. On Monday, two audio clips surfaced on the TV channels and social media in which a man said to be Tarin could 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 exposed the PTI to criticism, 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 jeopardize the deal,” he said. Tarin said 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 leaving behind a salary of Rs5 million and still he was 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 if PTI had been in power they would have ended the IMF programme by September; while the coalition government sought an extension.

Tarin said that it was high time all the political parties, including the PTI, moved past it. “In a democracy, you have the freedom to voice both agreement and dissent. “We have a disaster in front of us and it calls for us to unite and fight it together,” he said and advised the government to provide relief to the people in these testing times.

“I am seeing that our common folk will see more burden in the upcoming days because they [the government] will increase taxes and it will have a ripple effect […] and the reason is that they have accepted IMF’s special conditionalities,” he pointed out, citing increasing inflation and appreciating dollar. The PTI leader emphasised that the country would have to stand up to these conditionalities today – which include an increase in taxes and electricity prices.

Responding to his predecessor, Finance Minister Miftah Ismail blasted the PTI for its bad performance and lashed out at Tarin. “Tarin made it clear that we will not let them [coalition government] go scot-free,” he said while addressing a press conference in Karachi. Miftah recalled that it was Tarin who had assured the IMF of increasing fuel prices in April if the PTI government survived the vote of no-confidence. “For you [PTI chief] Imran Khan will be important but for us, the interest of the country is sacred,” he said, questioning him how can a leader make calls regarding jeopardising the IMF programme. In his fiery address, the finance minister said that PTI has been ruling Khyber Pakhtunkhwa since last 10 years but the education and health sectors in the province are still not up to the mark. “If you want to do politics then go ahead but the nation won’t forgive you because it has seen your reality,” he asserted. Regarding economic issues, Ismail said the country was saved from default and the economy had stabilised, although inflation was very high. The finance minister assured us that inflation would be absolutely brought under control in the next two months.