Shaukat Tarin fails to appear before FIA, agency summons him again

The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) has once again summoned former finance minister and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Shaukat Tarin over his controversial audio calls to Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (KP) and Punjab finance ministers regarding the International Monetary Fund (IMF) programme, Aaj News reported.

The former minister has been issued a notice after he failed to appear before the agency today (Wednesday).

The FIA also asked Tarin to appear in person at its Cybercrime Reporting Centre in Islamabad on September 22 to record a statement in his defence.

FIA summons Shaukat Tarin over leaked audio call regarding IMF programme

The agency has again warned Tarin that procedure under Section 174 of the Pakistan Penal Code, 1860 will be initiated against him if he fails to appear before it.

The leaked audio tape

The leaked audio came to the fore on August 29, the day IMF's executive board was scheduled to meet for considering Pakistan’s request of releasing the $1.2 billion tranche under the Extended Fund Facility (EFF).

In the clips, Tarin could allegedly be heard telling Punjab Finance Minister Mohsin Leghari and KP’s Taimur Jhagra to tell the federal government that provinces could not post a budget surplus — a key IMF condition.

“We only wanted the provincial finance minister to write to the federal government so pressure falls on them … they’re jailing us, filing terrorism charges against us and they’re going away completely scot-free. We can’t allow this to happen,” the voice purportedly of Tarin’s is heard telling Leghari.

When Leghari asks Tarin whether the activity would hurt the state, he responds: “Well … frankly speaking, isn’t the state suffering the way they are treating your chairman and everybody else? This will definitely happen that the IMF will ask ‘where will you arrange the money from’ and they (the government) will bring another mini-budget.”

Following the audio leak, Tarin rejected the allegations of treason against him, saying that whatever he said was in the national interest.

The former finance minister said that since he had not committed any treason, it was unfair to call him a traitor.