Senators seek debate on PTI foreign funding audit

Eleven senators from various opposition parties have asked the Senate chairman to bring up the issue of PTI foreign funding case in the House immediately. PML-N Senator Irfan Siddiqui said on Wednesday that the 11 members had submitted a call-attention notice to the Senate Secretariat for this purpose.
“In the notice, it has been demanded that the foreign funding case should be made part of the agenda for immediate discussion,” he added.

The senator said an adjournment motion notice had also been submitted. “The notice reads that the normal proceedings of the House should be suspended to discuss the facts about the PTI foreign funding case as it was a national issue.”

The signatories of the notice include ANP’s Senator Haji Hidayatullah Khan; National Party’s Senator Tahir Bizenjo; PML-N’s Senator Irfan Siddiqui, Senator Rana Maqbool Ahmed and Senator Dr Afnanullah Khan; PPP’s Senator Rukhsana Zubair and Senator Palwasha Khan; Jamiat Ahle Hadith’s Senator Prof Sajid Mir; JUI-F’s Senator Maulana Faiz Muhammad; PkMAP’s Senator Shafiq Tareen and JI’s Senator Mushtaq Ahmed.

A report by the Election Commission of Pakistan’s (ECP) scrutiny committee – investigating into the foreign funding of the PTI – recently 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.

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The committee in its report had cited Indian, French and Australian laws on prohibited funding. The details of the PTI’s funds and dollar accounts operated from abroad had been included in the report. The audit of PTI accounts of the SBP and US company Fara LLC were also part of the report.

According to the report, the PTI had two companies registered in the US for raising funds. 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 did not match the bank accounts. The report further pointed out that there was reluctance when the petitioner, Akbar S Babar, a former PTI leader, had 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.