Rana Sanaullah gives FIA nod to arrest Shaukat Tarin in audio leak case

FOOLS_NIGHTMARE · Feb 13, 2023

Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah on Sunday allowed the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) to arrest former finance czar Shaukat Tarin after the completion of an inquiry against him in the audio leak case.

On Saturday, the agency requested permission from the interior ministry to initiate legal proceedings against Mr Tarin and his detention, claiming that Shaukat Tarin's conversation was an attempt to derail the IMF deal and he wanted to harm the country's security and national interests.

Earlier, 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 pressurise federal government.

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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.

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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.

Addressing a presser in Karachi, the interior minister took a jibe at the deposed premier Imran Khan saying that after his ouster he and his stalwarts had been campaigning over false accusations to spread chaos in the country, adding that Shaukat Tarin played a similar role and tried hard to hurt Pakistan under Khan’s guidelines.

He added that 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

Rana went on to say that despite its shady tactics, the PTI was unable to derail the IMF agreement.

“Imran Khan is a ‘political terrorist but due to our efforts the country would remain “safe from terrorists, including political terrorists like him,” Rana added.