PTI ‘hid’ Rs310m from ECP

Scrutiny body report shows party received $44,000 from 88 foreign donors during 2008-13

ISLAMABAD:

A report by the Election Commission of Pakistan’s (ECP) scrutiny committee -- investigating into the foreign funding of the PTI -- on Tuesday unearthed that the party had concealed several accounts and around Rs310 million between 2008 and 2013 from the electoral body.

It further disclosed that the party had received $44,000 from 88 foreign donors during this period. The undisclosed accounts have been mentioned in a report by the State Bank of Pakistan. The scrutiny committee has also included its analysis of the bank accounts in the report.

The committee wrote in its report that the petitioner, Akbar S Babar, a former PTI leader, had failed to provide complete evidence of his claims.

The evidence provided by the petitioner cannot be proved in a court. The body said it could proceed on the basis of the information provided by the parties. The committee in its report has cited Indian, French and Australian laws on prohibited funding.

The details of the PTI’s funds and dollar accounts operated from abroad have been included in the report. The audit of PTI accounts of the SBP and US company Fara LLC are also part of the report.
According to the report, the PTI has two companies registered in the US for raising funds.

READ ECP scrutiny committee finds irregularities in PTI records

From April 2, 2013 to June 30, 2013, the PTI had received funds in the US to the tune of $554,280.
The PTI LLC had received $25,080 from 47 foreigners as well as $467,000 from Pakistanis. The other PTI company had raised another $2.344 million from February 2010 to June 2013.

It probably raised $19,000 from 41 foreigners and $107,000 from 230 companies. The scrutiny committee obtained information from the websites of the petitioner and SARA. The details of prohibited funding from other countries were not provided by the petitioner and the PTI.

Besides, no date has been mentioned on the PTI's audit report for the year 2012-13.
This, the report added, was against accounting standards. The cash receipts provided by the audit firm also do not match the bank accounts. The report further pointed out that there was reluctance when the petitioner sought bank statements.

According to the report, the PTI had disclosed only four of its 26 bank accounts. The SBP's bank statement showed that the PTI had received donations of Rs1.64 billion whereas it had only revealed an amount of Rs1.33 billion to the ECP.

The body was also denied access to the PTI’s bank accounts in Canada and New Zealand. According to the report, two bank accounts of PTI in 2008 and 2009 were not disclosed. As soon as the details of the report were unraveled, Babar took to Twitter to express his gratitude to the Almighty, saying that he stood "vindicated".