PTI finally submits record of party funding to ECP

ISLAMABAD: After dilly-dallying for years, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) on Monday finally submitted sealed details of the party accounts and foreign funding received during the last seven years to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP).

Unsettled by persistent defiance of its orders, the Election Commission was left with no other option but to give PTI yet ‘another final chance’ last week to submit financial documents and details of funds received from abroad, as well as the party’s accounts, by September 18.

Former information secretary and founding member of PTI Akbar S Babar had filed a petition in the Election Commission way back in November 2014, alleging glaring irregularities and violation of rules in handling of the party funds.

The party submitted financial documents and details of funds received from abroad, as well as the party’s accounts of the past seven years in five sealed volumes. The PTI counsel repeated his request to the five-member ECP bench, headed by Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Justice (retd) Sardar Muhammad Raza, that details of the party accounts might not be shared with Akbar S Babar, the petitioner in the case.

To this, the chief election commissioner pointed out that according to a Lahore High Court (LHC) ruling, the details of assets should be published online. He directed the PTI counsel to get the financial documents verified through concerned officials.

When the bench asked the counsel whether the financial records were the same, which the party had submitted in the Supreme Court, the counsel said that there were additional documents as well along with those documents.

The PTI counsel, Saqlain Haider, displeased the chief election commissioner when he requested issuance of a receipt with regards to submission of funding details. “Was the responsibility to submit this record ours or yours?” the CEC asked the counsel, saying that the bench members are not arhteez (middlemen). He made it clear that no receipt would be issued, as the PTI was bound to submit the related documents. This prompted the other PTI counsel to apologise to the Election Commission bench. However, he instructed the Director General Finance of the Election Commission to open the sealed documents in the presence of a PTI representative.

The documents were submitted on the orders of the Islamabad High Court (IHC), where the PTI had filed a stay petition against the Election Commission’s scrutiny of its accounts as well as repeated orders of the ECP spread over a period of almost three years to produce the financial records.

The PTI flatly refused to hand over the documents to the ECP for almost three years since the filing of the case on one pretext or another. The hearing was afterwards adjourned till October 16.

The petitioner had alleged that nearly $3 million in illegal foreign funds were collected through two offshore companies, registered under Imran’s signature, and that money was sent through illegal ‘hundi’ channels from the Middle East to accounts of PTI employees. He also alleged that foreign accounts used to collect funds were concealed from the annual audit reports submitted to the Election Commission. In April 2015, after scrutinising PTI’s annual audit reports, the Election Commission had ordered that the party had failed to disclose the sources and details of foreign funds received. Instead of submitting the accounts, the PTI had challenged the Election Commission’s jurisdiction to scrutinise its accounts.

In July, the IHC rejected the PTI’s plea to prevent the ECP from hearing Babar’s petition and said that the case had been going on since 2014 and had already once been referred back to the ECP. 

After the hearing, Akbar S Babar while speaking to the media outside the Election Commission alleged that the documents submitted by the PTI were fake and incomplete. APP adds: Babar asked the ECP if it were the same documents presented to the Supreme Court, if so then “our opinion” may also be considered prior to issuing the decision.

“There is no bank statement. There is no money trail. If these are the same documents, then these are fake documents. There was no detail in documents presented to the Supreme Court about transactions from London and Dubai made through ‘hundi’ for the PTI,” he claimed.

Babar also named a couple of people who have been sending money for Imran Khan through illegal means, while some donations coming from the United States in the name of Shaukat Khanam Hospital were also used for party expenses.

“Out of the 688-page statement, 628 pages simply carry names of persons who donated money but without any bank statement or money trail,” he added.Babar said he had already provided some proof to the Election Commission and would submit more to negate the claims of the PTI regarding accounts statement.

“I shall not let Imran Khan run away with illegal foreign funding. He had collected money through illegal means and would be exposed,” Babar said, adding that Imran has a hypocritical approach as he expresses no confidence in the Election Commission but at the same time he desires scrutiny of other parties’ accounts as well.

Mentioning the NA-120 by-election, he said Imran had asked voters to vote for a new Pakistan but voters opted for old Pakistan because by having corrupt people in his party ranks, one cannot create a new Pakistan. “Voters have come to know that Imran Khan had failed to create a new KP and the situation in the province had worsened during PTI’s tenure. Therefore, they rejected Imran Khan’s slogan,” Babar said.

He said people had started losing confidence in Imran for his dual character and they desired not to be cheated any more in the name of New Pakistan or corruption.“Everybody knows that Imran Khan stopped the accountability process in KP. Therefore, people cannot rely on a person who backs out from his commitment,” he said.