PML-N, PTI bicker over foreign funding case
The ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf and one of the main opposition parties, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, on Saturday bickered over the foreign funding case with the latter accusing the prime minister of concealing his money trail and the former saying that everything was done according to the law.
In a recorded video message, ousted premier Nawaz Sharif asked Prime Minister Imran Khan to give the money trail in the foreign funding case against the PTI as well as questioned the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) as to why and on whose instructions was it hesitant to share details of the matter and issue a verdict in the case pending for over six years.
“Imran Khan accepted about two to three days ago that there were errors in the foreign funding case but held his agents responsible for it,” Sharif said.
However, talking to media persons in Multan on Saturday, Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said that the PTI collected funds within the ambit of the law and had provided complete details of the funding to the ECP.
Sharif compared his cases with the PTI’s foreign funding case and raised a number of questions about the conduct of the premier as well as the ECP.
“The State Bank of Pakistan has provided information regarding 23 PTI accounts to the ECP. Imran Khan hid 15 accounts and committed fraud by not declaring them in the report submitted to the ECP, which is a serious offence.
“Neither did Imran Khan disclose the total amount, nor did he reveal the sources. He also failed to present the money trail or provide receipts,” Sharif said, adding that there was not an iota of transparency in the financial affairs of the premier.
Addressing the media, Qureshi said, “The PTI also managed audit of its accounts on an annual basis.”
Sharif urged the people to participate in the 11-party opposition alliance – the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) – protest scheduled to be held outside the ECP office in Islamabad on January 19.
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Qureshi told the media that before holding a protest at the ECP office, both the PML-N and the Pakistan Peoples Party should also provide details of their party funds to the commission by January 18.
On his ouster in 2017, Sharif said that the process was fast-tracked; the Supreme Court’s judges through WhatsApp constituted a JIT, which included military intelligence and ISI representatives. The JIT was tasked to submit its investigation report within 60 days and the Panama case was quickly decided against him.
“A prime minister was deposed on the basis of an Iqama of his son’s company,” he said, adding that later, an accountability court was directed to conclude the case arising out of the Panama Papers scandal within six months. Also, he said that a judge of the apex court was appointed to monitor the proceedings of the accountability court.
Then, he said, a direction was passed that the accountability court should not even take the weekly holiday in order to give a quick decision in the case. “Judge Muhammad Bashir of the accountability court was given an extension in his tenure.”
In an interview with a private TV channel on Friday, PM Imran said that he was happy that the opposition was focusing on the foreign funding case after the allegations of rigging in the general election, as he accused the PML-N and the PPP of receiving funds from other countries.
The premier termed corruption the root cause of poverty in Pakistan and stressed that it was not the corruption of a low-level officials that destroyed the country but the corruption at the level of the prime minister.