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Wednesday July 09, 2025

Timeline of plot to scuttle IMF deal

By News Desk
August 30, 2022
—AFP
—AFP

ISLAMABAD: The conspiracy to sabotage IMF deal came to surface when Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) senior leader Fawad Chaudhry said on August 25, 2022, (Thursday) that the government will have to hold general elections otherwise deal with International Monetary Fund (IMF) will not be materialised.

He said, while speaking in a private TV channel talk show, that Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab government would convey to the federal government that they would not be able to generate surplus revenue necessary to strike a deal with the Fund.

He said that on the refusal of the KP and Punjab governments over surplus revenue, the central government cannot win agreement with the IMF. The very next day (Saturday), KP Finance Minister Taimur Jhagra wrote to Federal Finance Minister Miftah Ismail that the KP government would not be able to contribute surplus revenue because of devastating floods as the central government had also failed to pay the outstanding amount to the provincial government.

Taimur Jhagra also conveyed that the letter would also be shared with the IMF. In the letter to Miftah, Jhagra connected the payment of the Rs100 billion in alleged liabilities with the clearance of the provincial cash surplus for this fiscal year, which is a requirement of Pakistan’s agreement with the IMF.

This occurred just three days prior to the revival of IMF’s multibillion dollar credit programme. The KP government had already agreed through a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to achieve the Rs117 billion cash surplus that is required by the IMF arrangement. On

The same day, Tainur Jhagra tweeted saying, “I did write a letter spelling this math out. They added me to the list of traitors. Anyway, let’s see what Miftah Ismail says today.” Explosive telephonic conversation between former federal finance minister Shaukat_Tarin and KP finance minister Taimur Jhagra leaked, revealing the conspiracy to derail IMF programme. When asked about the conversation Taimur Jhagra denied it.

In a leaked audio, Tarin can be heard asking Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Finance Minister Taimur Khan Jhagra if he had written the letter. “I am on the way. I have the previous letter. I will send the letter to you after drafting it,” replied the KP finance minister.

Tarin asked Jhagra to send a copy of the letter to Esther of the IMF after writing it. To that Jhagra replied that he knows IMF No 2 here and he has been exchanging all information with him/her.

“By the way, this is just a blackmailing tactic,” he said, adding that nobody says no to money. At least I won’t say that.” In a tweet on Monday, Jhagra said, “The IMF deal is approved. That in itself answers plenty of questions. But sadly, we are no closer to resolving the substance of the letter I sent - and that concerns the $10 bln bill for our floods, or the issues of FATA or KP.”

Later in the day, Jhagra released a video message, challenging Ismail to prove his claim that the KP finance minister had sent his letter to the IMF. “You know I did not send the letter … prove that I sent the letter to the IMF then I will resign and if this proves to be false, then you will resign — which your party is already saying.”