Federal Finance Minister Miftah Ismail asked Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Finance Minister Taimur Khan Jhagra to resign and PTI Senator Shaukat Tarin to quit politics for trying to sabotage Pakistan’s interests after audio leaks of their conversation regarding the resumption of the crucial International Monetary Fund (IMF) programme surfaced on Monday.
In one of the audio clips, that are being widely played on television channels, Tarin can be heard asking Jhagra to write a letter to the federal government to let it know that KP would not be able to commit to a provincial surplus in light of the recent floods that have wreaked havoc in Pakistan.
In the other audio, Tarin can be heard asking Punjab Finance Minister Mohsin Leghari to do the same.
Running a provincial surplus, which had been agreed to by all provinces earlier this year, was one of the key requirements for Pakistan’s IMF programme and the release of the loan tranche by the lender.
In his presser, Ismail referred to both the audio leaks as well as a letter Jhagra had written to him last week in which he conveyed his administration’s inability to provide a provincial surplus this year.
The federal minister alleged that Jhagra had sent the letter to the IMF before sending it to him. “I checked with them (the IMF) within an hour [of receiving the letter] and they already had it. Are we children? Am I mad? If you’re clever, can we not recognise it? And then you are defending it.
“Imran Khan should ask the nation for forgiveness. Taimur Jhagra should resign and Shaukat Tarin should quit politics. Is this why you do politics?” he thundered.
He termed the PTI’s move the “most shameful thing”, saying that the real faces of the party leaders had now been exposed.
Ismail also urged PTI supporters to question party Chairman Imran about whether the letter Jhagra wrote was in the state’s interest. “Do support Imran but tell him he is not bigger than Pakistan. Bring him to power but not at the cost of Pakistan.
“When they are writing letters against Pakistan’s interest, it is your responsibility to say no. Consider Pakistan’s interest to be sacred. If Pakistan’s interest is not sacred to a person, he is not fit to govern the country.”
At the start of his press conference, the finance minister spoke about the devastation caused by the floods sweeping the country. People had lost their family members, their homes had been flooded, their crops destroyed and their cattle killed, he noted.
He said Pakistan was “drowning and the one support after God is the IMF programme”. However, amid the destruction, the PTI had done this below-the-belt act, he said.
Referring to the audio leak, Ismail said only Leghari had questioned whether the state would be damaged by writing the letter. “Nobody else asked this. Jhagra said I know IMF’s number 2 and I will give him the information. Did you become politicians for this?
“Fawad Chaudhry had already spoken about this a day earlier. Should Imran Khan [be allowed to] change Pakistan’s name to Bani Gala? Should we hang Pakistan on Imran Khan’s directives? Has Imran Khan become bigger than Pakistan? Are they not ashamed?”
The minister said several politicians, including those from his party and PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif had advised against forming the government because of the precarious situation the country was in.
