Tarin brawls out govt over leaked audios.

ISLAMABAD: A new front has opened up in the ongoing blame game between the ruling coalition and PTI, with former finance minister and PTI leader Shaukat Tarin blaming the coalition government for releasing his alleged audio leak on the day when the IMF executive board was scheduled to meet. Addressing a press conference in Islamabad on Saturday, Shaukat Tarin said, "If you wanted to leak my alleged audio, then you should have done that before. You are leveling baseless allegations against me". On Monday, two audio clips surfaced on the TV channels and social media in which a man said to be Tarin could be heard guiding Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab's finance ministers to tell the federal government and the IMF that they would not be able to commit to a provincial budget surplus in light of the recent floods that have wreaked havoc in Pakistan.

The audios exposed the PTI to criticism, as the coalition government alleged that they were nothing but a conspiracy to derail the state's deal with the global lender. "They [coalition government] are blaming us for sabotaging the IMF deal; however, those who leaked the tapes mere hours before the IMF board meeting were the people who wanted to jeopardize the deal," he said. Tarin said the leaders of all political parties, including PTI, should stop distributing "certificates of treason" among leaders.

"We [PTI] never labelled anybody from the then opposition as traitor in regards of the IMF programme when we were in power," Tarin said, adding that he returned to Pakistan leaving behind a salary of Rs5 million and still he was being called a traitor. He urged the government to renegotiate and seek relief from the Washington-based lender in the wake of catastrophic floods. "Go to them and ask them for relief. After that go to Russia and buy discounted oil. Give people relief on petrol and gas [prices]. Increase your tax revenue rather than burdening the masses," the PTI leader said. The former finance minister said if PTI had been in power they would have ended the IMF programme by September; while the coalition government sought an extension.

Tarin said that it was high time all the political parties, including the...