Govt to conduct forensic audit of Shaukat Tarin’s leaked audios

ISLAMABAD: The federal government has decided to conduct a forensic audit of former finance minister and PTI Senator Shaukat Tarin’s leaked conversations with the finance ministers of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab regarding the International Monetary Fund (IMF) programme, ARY News reported.

Speaking to the media in Islamabad, Federal Law Minister Azam Nazir Tarar said that the govt has decided to carry out a forensic audit of leaked conservations and action would be taken as per the law following the completion of the inquiry.

“Consultation with the interior and law ministries are underway over the matter,” he said, adding that legal action would be taken against those who “spoke against state interests”.

The two leaked audio clips of the former finance minister surfaced on Monday, in which Tarin can be heard instructing party ministers in KP and Punjab to refuse to commit to a provincial surplus in light of the recent floods that have wreaked havoc in Pakistan.

Last week, KP Finance Minister Taimur Khan Jhagra had written a letter to the Ministry of Finance conveying his administration’s inability to provide a provincial surplus this year.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) late Monday approved the seventh and eighth reviews of Pakistan’s Extended Fund Facility Programme (EFF).

The Fund in a press release announced that the executive board completed the combined seventh and eighth reviews of the “extended arrangement” under the Extended Fund Facility (EFF) for Pakistan.

“The board’s decision allows for an immediate disbursement of SDR 894 million (about $1.1 billion), bringing total purchases for budget support under the arrangement to about US$3.9 billion,” the statement read.