FIA charges Shaukat Tarin: A former finance minister Shaukat Tarin, was arrested on Monday for violating the PECA due to a leaked recording by the Federal Investigation Agency’s (FIA) Cyber Crime Wing. It then filed an FIR and arrested Tarin by sections 124-A and 505.
Two leaked audios from August 2022, allegedly containing conversations between Tarin and the then-finance ministers of Punjab and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (KP), Taimur Jhagra and Mohsin Leghari, seemed to show that the three conspired to sabotage the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Programme, which resumed in mid-2022. The government put the lending program on hold in March 2022 after it approved subsidies on fuel and power costs.
Mussarat Jamshed Cheema, the leader of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), regretted “the newest decision of the administration” in an interview. Mussarat added that Pakistan saw 6% growth while Tarin was finance minister.
“He supported the economy and improved wellbeing in COVID-19. He is a success for Imran Khan’s administration, she claimed.
Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah had said on Sunday that the government had given the FIA permission to detain the former finance minister in the case involving his suspected involvement in scuttling the critical IMF agreement.
Background
Tarin allegedly directed two ministers to contact the IMF in leaked audios from August 2022, in order to prevent the release of a $1.1 billion tranche after the seventh and eighth reviews of Pakistan’s economy.
Jhagra had previously conveyed the same in a letter to the Ministry of Finance. The tape supposedly heard Leghari declining to write such a letter.
The FIA opened an investigation against Tarin and subsequently notified him due to an allegedly made audio call to Jhagra.
According to reports, the FIA finished a preliminary investigation into Tarin’s audio leaks and requested permission from the interior ministry to file charges against him, which resulted in his arrest.