Govt has given FIA permission to arrest former finance minister Shaukat Tarin: Sanaullah

Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah said on Sunday that the government has given the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) its go-ahead to arrest former finance minister and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Senator Shaukat Tarin in a case related to his alleged role in derailing the crucial International Monetary Fund (IMF) deal, Aaj News reported.

The interior minister revealed this while addressing a press conference in Karachi.

In August, two audio tapes surfaced on social and mainstream media, in which a man said to be Tarin could be heard guiding Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab’s finance ministers to inform the federal government and the IMF of their inability to commit to a provincial budget surplus in light of the recent floods that have wreaked havoc in Pakistan.

Prior to that, Jhagra had written a letter to the Ministry of Finance conveying the same.

The FIA then issued a notice to Tarin, saying an inquiry had been initiated against him on the basis of the alleged audio call to Jhagra.

As per reports, the FIA has completed a preliminary inquiry into Tarin’s audio leaks and sought approval from the interior ministry to initiate legal proceedings against Tarin, leading to his arrest.

During his presser today, Sanaullah criticised PTI Chairman Imran Khan and alleged that since his ouster, the former premier had been “campaigning and making moves” to ensure that the country was subject to political instability so that it would ultimately default.

“For this purpose, he (Imran) also led astray a person like Shaukat Tarin who, under his influence, did something because of which Pakistan could’ve been hurt.

“The inquiry against him (Tarin) is complete, the FIA had asked permission to arrest him which the government has given and he should be punished for it so no one ever dares to do something like this again.”

He said that despite all this, the PTI chief was “unsuccessful” and an agreement between the IMF and the government was seemingly on the horizon.

“Today again he indulged in a very disgusting talk which is highly condemnable and I want to clarify that Pakistan will achieve political and economic stability,” he said, referring to Imran’s televised address.

Sanaullah called Imran a “political terrorist” and said the country would remain “safe from terrorists, including political terrorists like him”.

He said there was “no possibility” of future negotiations with militants since past talks had not proved successful or yielded any results. “There is no doubt that a new wave of terrorism has arrived,” Sanaullah said, adding that law enforcement agencies and security institutions are on alert.

During his media talk, the interior minister also spoke about elections in the country, saying that it was the Election Commission of Pakistan’s prerogative to conduct them.

“We are fully ready to contest elections whether they are in April or October but we are of the opinion that they are not the solution to the economic and militancy challenges the country faces at this time.”

The interior minister said it would be “hard to accept” the results of an election held without a caretaker set-up.