Shaukat Tarin was suggesting relief from IMF in audio, claims Asad Umar

ISLAMABAD: PTI Secretary General Asad Umar on Monday defended an audio leak of the former finance minister Shaukat Tarin speaking to Punjab and KP finance ministers and said that he was suggesting them on asking Centre to seek a relief from the IMF during floods, ARY NEWS reported.

Speaking to media along with KP foreign minister Taimur Jhagra, Asad Umar lamented phone tapping of the former finance minister and said that the government has altered the conversation. “These are old tactics of the PML-N to cut and paste videos and audios,” he blamed.

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Umar said that Tarin only asked the provincial finance ministers to tell the Centre to approach IMF again and seek relief on conditions set for the release of US$1.18 billion loan tranche.

“When we are asking money from other countries then why we can’t ask IMF to provide some relief to spend the money on floods,” he said. “The letter written by KP minister is a prove of what they wanted from the Centre regarding a relief for the national exchequer that is overburdened owing to devastating floods.”

Speaking on the occasion, Taimur Jhagra said that he had to write a letter again to the finance minister after Miftah Ismail did not implement promises made during his meeting with him on funds for erstwhile FATA areas.

“Even when they agreed to surplus provincial budgets with IMF, we asked them to sit with us and discuss the issue. We wrote a letter on July 06 on the matter,” he shared.

While acknowledging the contents of the letter to Miftah Ismail, Jhagra said he only demanded due funds for erstwhile FATA areas. “We will not compromise on FATA areas as people are living there in miserable conditions,” he said.