PTI accepts receiving funds in staff’s accounts

Tells ECP committee there was not political funding law in UAE in 2011

ISLAMABAD:

The ruling PTI has accepted that it received funds in the bank accounts of four of its secretariat employees during a meeting of a scrutiny committee probing into allegations levelled by a disgruntled member that the party received illegal funds from foreign sources.

The scrutiny committee – constituted by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) – on Tuesday met once again to review the objections raised by PTI’s founding member Akbar S Babar.

The committee’s chairman – ECP’s director general law – was unavailable due to some other engagements and the in-camera meeting was conducted by the other two members of the committee.

Akbar S Babar and his lawyer were present during the proceedings. Advocate Shah Khawar was representing the PTI along with some members of the party’s finance team.

During the meeting, the PTI accepted that it received funds from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) through the bank accounts of four of its secretariat employees.

The party contended that in 2011, there was no law in the UAE with regard to political financing. It said the party also did not have bank accounts to receive funding from the Gulf States and therefore it received funds in the bank accounts of the four employees.

The PTI’s counsel contented that all the amounts that were received in the name of the party in these accounts were audited and their details had already been provided to the ECP.

Akbar S Babar, however, rejected the claim and requested the scrutiny committee to get all the details of these bank accounts from the Supreme Court of Pakistan.

Read more: Why is PM Imran confident about foreign funding case?

According to some documents, the four employees whose accounts were used to receive funds from the UAE were Tahir Iqbal, a telephone operator; Nauman Afzal, a computer operator; Mohammad Arshad, an accountant and Mohammad Rafi, an office helper.

Talking to the media after the meeting, Babar said the PTI has accepted that it received funds from the UAE in the accounts of their employees. “In 2011, the PTI had allowed its employees to receive funds in their personal accounts,” the Babar said, claiming that the “confession” had vindicated his stance.

On February 9, the scrutiny committee rejected the petitioner’s request to provide him with the records submitted by the ruling PTI in connection with the foreign funding investigation.

Akbar S Babar had requested the scrutiny committee to allow him to get copies of the records provided by the ruling party with regard to its funding. However, the scrutiny committee last week told him that he could view the record only during the meetings.

The committee said it had already stated its stance with regard to the records provided by the political parties. Later, Babar had said he would challenge the scrutiny committee’s decision before the ECP. He said the decision to hold the scrutiny committee meetings in-camera had also raised eyebrows.