FIA takes PTI senator ‘into custody’ over prohibited funding

Saifullah Nyazee was 'illegally collecting funds through website'; another party member arrested in Lahore

ISLAMABAD/LAHORE:

The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) on Friday took PTI founding member Senator Saifullah Nyazee into custody in the prohibited funding case.

Despite the FIA refuting the development, Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah confirmed that the PTI senator had indeed been taken into custody and if need be, he might be arrested.

Niazi, one of the close associates of PTI chairman and deposed premier Imran Khan, was suddenly taken into custody from the premises of the upper house of parliament and transferred to a cell.

When news of this development surfaced, the FIA spokesperson described the reports as “baseless and false.”

He added that no wing of the FIA had taken Nyazee into custody.

However, during a news conference in Islamabad, the interior minister when asked about it confirmed that Nyazee was in custody.

He added that the PTI senator was summoned in connection with the prohibited funding case but he had failed to appear.

Sanaullah further said that if need be, Nyazee could also be arrested after completing the formalities of law.

An FIA cybercrime wing inquiry is under way against the PTI senator for illegally raising funds for the party through a website called “Namanzoor.com”.

Another founding member of the PTI, Hamid Zaman, was arrested by the FIA in connection with the case.

Zaman was taken into custody from his office on Waris Road in Lahore.

Sources revealed that in 2013, Zaman was the secretary of Insaf Trust, which received $625,000 in its accounts, adding that the party’s welfare organisation had not met the rules and regulations.

Reports are also circulating that the FIA team had raided PTI leader Aamir Kayani’s house to arrest him. However, the agency did not issue a statement about this raid.

Responding to the development, PTI leader Chaudhry Fawad Hussain wrote on Twitter: “After Shehbaz Sharif’s press conference yesterday and the subsequent arrests of Tariq Shafi, Hamid Zaman and Saif Niazi, it is clear that the government is panicking and is scared after the announcement of ‘Azadi March’.”

The house of Tariq Shafi, a founding member of the PTI, who is also a member of the party's finance board, was also raided in Karachi but he was not at home. The house was searched and his two mobile phones were seized.

Tariq Shafi was named in the FIR by the FIA State Bank Circle. The case regarding illegal transfer of funds from abroad to Pakistan was filed on October 5.
Apart from Tariq Shafi, Syed Arif Masood Naqvi and Muhammad Rafi were nominated as accused in the case. Domestic and foreign companies involved in illegal transfer of funds have also been included in the FIR.

The FIA had kicked off its probe against the PTI in August this year after the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) had declared in its verdict that the party had indeed received illegal funding.

The case had been filed by PTI founding but disgruntled member Akbar S Babar that had been pending since November 14, 2014.

The written order of the ECP stated that the political party had received illegal funds from foreign countries including the US, UAE, UK, and Australia.