PTI, Govt Lock Horns Over Tarin's Audio Leaks.

As the country awaited the crucial relief with bated breath ahead of the IMF meeting on Monday, the PML-N-led ruling coalition and the PTI locked horns over the latter's alleged attempts to employ 'hardball tactics' to thrust the crucial loan into 'jeopardy'.

The matter spiraled into an acrimonious verbal slugfest after two audio clips surfaced of a telephone conversation of PTI Senator Shaukat Tarin instructing party ministers in K-P and Punjab - where the PTI is at the helm of affairs - to refuse to commit to a provincial surplus in light of the recent floods that have wreaked havoc in Pakistan.

While the PTI grew feistier in the defence of its stance and tamped it down as a genuine issue, the government ministers accused the PTI of putting the country's interests in peril and sought to bring the 'conspiracy' before the National Security Committee (NSC).

In one of the audio clips, Shaukat Tarin can be heard guiding Punjab Finance Minister Mohsin Leghari to tell the federal government and the IMF that he would not be able to commit to a provincial budget surplus in light of the recent floods that have wreaked havoc in Pakistan.

'We only wanted the provincial finance minister to write to the federal government so 'pressure falls on these b*** ... they're jailing us, filing terrorism charges against us and they're going away completely scot-free. We can't allow this to happen,' Tarin is heard telling Leghari.

Leghari asks Tarin whether the activity would hurt the state, to which Tarin responds: 'Well ... frankly speaking, isn't the state suffering the way they are treating your chairman and everybody else? This will definitely happen that the IMF will ask 'where will you arrange the money from' and they (the government) will bring another mini-budget.'

Tarin further says that it could not be allowed that 'they mistreat us and we stand on one side and they blackmail us in the name of the state and ask for help and we keep helping them.'

Later in the leaked conversation, Tarin tells Leghari that the mechanism of the information's release to the public would be decided later.

'We will do something so it doesn't seem we are hurting the state but we should at least present the facts that you won't be able to give [budget surplus] so our commitment is zero.'

In the other audio, Tarin can be heard asking Jhagra whether he had drawn up a similar letter.

'[The IMF commitment] is a blackmailing tactic and no one will release money anyway. I won't...