I only asked ex-ISI chief to get my case heard by court: Shaukat Tarin

KARACHI: PTI government’s finance minister Shaukat Tarin said Friday he only asked the then ISI chief Lt Gen Faiz Hameed to have his cases taken up by courts since he believed he would be cleared on merit.

Speaking in a TV programme, he said, “My case should have been disposed of on merit. Faiz never told me that he would get my case dismissed, nor did I ever ask him for any favour. I had also told prime minister (Imran Khan) that I would not accept this job (finance ministry) unless my cases are finished. I only wanted my cases heard by courts. If heard, the cases would have been finished on merit. Everyone knew I was innocent.” Shaukat Tarin was reacting to comments attributed to Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa (retd) in a newspaper column on February 9. The columnist has narrated an account of his interaction with the former army chief.

The column quotes Gen Bajwa as saying, “We kept trying to convince the prime minister (Imran Khan) against appointing Tarin as finance minister. I told the PM that Tarin, who has failed to run his bank, he will ruin the economy. The PM disagreed.”

“NAB had a Rs8 billion case against Shaukat. The PM asked us to have these cases dismissed.... and Gen Faiz Hameed got these cases scrapped from NAB,” the column cites Gen Bajwa as narrating.