ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Senator Shaukat Tarin on Wednesday rejected the allegations of treason against him, saying that whatever he said was in the national interest.
Taking to media in the Parliament House, the former finance minister said that since he had not committed any treason, it is unfair to call him a ‘traitor’, saying that whatever he said was for the sake of 220 million people of the country. Taking a swipe at his opponents, Tarin said if he committed treason then what about the PDM who in the past talked about tearing copies of the International Monetary Funds (IMF) documents.
It merits mention here that earlier, an alleged audio of PTI leader Shaukat Tarin surfaced in which he allegedly asked Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Finance Ministers to backtrack from IMF commitments in order to pressurize federal government.
In the audio clip, former finance minister was purportedly giving directions to provincial finance minister to derail International Monetary Fund deal.
In alleged audio, Shaukat Tarin said that they need to backtrack from Rs750 billion commitments and tell the lender that the commitment Punjab made was pre-floods and now the province “cannot honor it”.
The PTI leader told the finance minister to draft 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.
At Tarin’s request, Leghari asked whether Pakistan would suffer if Punjab withdraws from the deal.
“Well, frankly isn’t the state already suffering because of the way they are treating your chairman [Khan] and everybody else? IMF will definitely ask them: where will you get the money from now?” Tarin responded.
He further said that Centre is sending PTI leadership to jail and filing terrorism case. Tarin said that this could not go on further and the party could not bear being “mistreated” and not respond. “We cannot be blackmailed.
Comments
Comments are closed for this article.