The government has granted permission to the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) to arrest former finance minister Shaukat Tarin for his alleged audio clips on the International Monetary Fund backdoor discussions last year.

“Imran Khan also persuaded Shaukat Tarin, who looks to be a decent man, and on this, he [Tarin] took some action because of which Pakistan could have suffered. Anyways, an inquiry has been completed against him and the FIA had sought permission to arrest him that the government has approved,” Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah told reporters at an event in Karachi on Sunday.

The development comes a day after the federal agency tasked with investigating crimes decided to initiate legal action against the former finance minister and sought permission from the interior ministry to arrest him after probing the audio leak.

In a notice issued to Tarin in September last year, the FIA said an inquiry had been initiated against his alleged role on the basis of the audio leak.

In audio leaks, which was described by the PTI leaders as cut and paste, Tarin, Taimur Salim Jhagra, and Mohsin Leghari, were speaking about Pakistan’s deal with the global lender and PTI ruled provinces’ apparent inability to meet the global lender’s requirement.

“We will create a situation in which it would not show that we are damaging the state,” former finance minister Shaukat Tarin was quoted as saying in the alleged audio clip.

The interior minister was of the view that Tarin should get punishment for his actions so that no one dares to repeat this.

Sanaullah slammed former prime minister Imran Khan for giving “cheap remarks” at a time when the government was near to reaching an agreement with the IMF.

Imran, in a televised address earlier in the day, criticised the government’s economic decisions and said that inflation would further increase after the IMF deal. He supported his claims by quoting the rate of petrol, diesel, flour, and ghee.

He alleged that the government was unaware of the country’s situation as their assets were parked abroad.

Reacting to this, the interior minister clarified that the country would be stable both economically and politically. He described Imran as a “political terrorist”, reiterating that the country would remain “safe from terrorists, including political terrorists like him”.

When asked about any talks with militants, he said that there was “no possibility” of future negotiations with them since unfortunately similar efforts in the past had not proved successful or yielded any results. “It would have been better if such efforts had produced good results. There is no doubt that a new wave of terrorism has arrived,” Sanaullah said, adding that law enforcement agencies, all security institutions, and provincial governments were on alert.

To another query, the interior minister said that it was the Election Commission of Pakistan’s prerogative to conduct polls in the country.

“No one is deviating from elections. 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 or else it would lead to “anarchy” and a “blame game”.

Audio leaks

An audio clip allegedly of PTI leaders, Tarin, Jhagra and Laghari, made the rounds on August 29, 2022 in which the finance czars spoke about the country’s funding programme and PTI ruled provinces’ apparent inability to meet the global lender’s requirement.

The alleged audio tape surfaced on social media a couple of days after KP Finance Minister Jhagra had written a letter to Miftah, saying that it would be “next to impossible” for the provincial government to leave a surplus. The coalition government in reaction to the letter had vowed to defeat the PTI-led “conspiracy to sabotage” the IMF deal.

“The is a trend to cut and paste… earlier it was video now it was the audio,” PTI leader Asad Umar said in response to the apparent audio tape leak. He alleged that it was not the first time that such things happened.

The-then Finance Minister Miftah Ismail had slammed the PTI over the development. “Is Bani Gala and Imran Khan bigger than Pakistan. I will ask PTI followers to introspect and consider Pakistan’s interest as sacred,” he had said in a press conference.