In a tight spot

The Election Commission (ECP) scrutiny committee’s report has suddenly put ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s (PTI) government in a tight spot. The report, to the PTI’s dismay, has highlighted the transfer of money by foreign companies and nationals to the PTI’s bank accounts.

The ECP made the report public on January 4 after years long hearing.

The scrutiny committee was formed to identify prohibited funding in the light of the allegations leveled in a complaint filed by Akbar S Babar, a disgruntled member of the PTI.

The committee was established in terms of Article 6 of the Political Parties Order 2020 read with Rule 6 of Political Parties Rules, 2002 and in view of the directions contained in the judgment, dated December 15, 2017 in the Muhammad Hanif Abbasi versus Imran Khan Niazi case.

The report – a copy of which is available with the Bol News – talks about 53 bank accounts which the PTI had not disclosed to the ECP. It said an amount of US $2.2 million and Rs1.9 million were remitted to the bank accounts maintained by the PTI with the UBL.

This amount was remitted by two limited liability companies and two individuals who by naming protocol appeared to be of Pakistani origin. Wotton Cricket Limited (Dubai) remitted US$2.1 million while Bristol Engineering Services FZ LLC Dubai remitted US$49,965 to the PTI accounts.

According to the scrutiny committee report, this information is based on the bank statements provided by the UBL to the ECP on the direction of the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP).

It also highlighted that the bank did not provide any further details or information and therefore the committee was unable to make further observations on the source of funds.

The committee said an amount of US $34,605 and Sterling Pound 95,126 was remitted to the PTI accounts maintained by Westwood Gardens Barnes London (US$24,605); Faisal Khan Mian, London (US$10,000): the PTI UK, Staffordshire (UK Pound 92,875) and other contributors (UK Pound 3,992).

According to the report, the committee was not provided any further details or information; therefore it was unable to make further observations on the source of the funds.

An amount of Euro 33,426, US$100,000 and Pakistan Rs1,816,393 were remitted to PTI accounts maintained with the UBL. Karim Saadat – of the PTI Finland –remitted Euro27,260; E Planted Trustees PTC, Zurich remitted US$100,000.

According to the report, it was evident that the chartered accountant of the PTI during the scope of the period did not reconcile the PTI’s accounts with the bank statements and yet gave a fairly kept account certificate as per their audit certificate/opinions which were submitted by the PTI to the ECP.

The report said it was evident that from 2009-2010 to 2012-2013, the PTI under-reported an amount of Rs310,440,444. An amount of US $25,174 and Rs434,000 were remitted to the PTI bank accounts in BankIslami/KASB (defunct) and the UBL for US dollars and the HBL for Pakistan rupees.

The committee was again not provided further details or information and it was unable to make further observations on the sources of funds.

The petitioner in the case, Akbar S Babar told Bol news that PTI maintains that Rs310 million were under reported. However, he said, this makes no difference as far as the real issue is concerned.

“Whether the PTI received funds from the prohibited sources or not is the real issue. The law of Pakistan states that a political party can receive funds only from a Pakistani citizen.

“This has been revealed in the scrutiny committee report that US$1.6 million were remitted into the PTI’s bank account and the details of this money is not available. Foreign companies as well as foreign nationals also made funding to the PTI,” he said.

He said Wotton Cricket Limited remitted US$2.1 million, which, he alleged, is Arif Naqvi’s company who is facing charges in the UK. He said under the law even Pakistani companies can’t fund the political parties. Pakistani and foreign companies funded the PTI which was against the law of the country.

“The PTI revealed only 12 bank accounts with the ECP while 65 bank accounts of the PTI were disclosed by the SBP and thus 53 bank accounts were concealed,” Babar said.

“It is a mega scam. The PTI chairman was supposed to give a certificate to the authorities that the party fulfilled its all financial responsibilities and no prohibited funding was involved in this process.”

He said the PTI received more than Rs1 billion in 2013 but it did not provide its details. He said the law says that one has to provide details of the source of funds. “This has also been the case that the chairman office received Rs26 million as cash but no detail is available in this regard.”

According to Babar, a single transaction amounting to US$2.1 million which was made from Dubai to a PTI’s account is sufficient to prove that the party has been receiving prohibited funds from abroad.

On the other hand, he said, the party has been receiving funds from a lot of other countries including, the USA, the UK, Australia and others but details of these funds were not provided to the committee.

Talking to Bol News, PTI’s lawyer Chaudhry Faisal Hussain said the case has no bearing on PM Imran Khan. If the case is proved that prohibited funds were received by the PTI then the amount in question would be confiscated after following proper procedure, he said.

Responding to a question about concealment of accounts by the PTI, he said there is no such thing like concealment of accounts. “It could be a duplication of transactions,” he said.

He said the scrutiny committee was formed on the directives of the Supreme Court and that the matter pertains to all the parties including the PPP and the PML-N. “Whatever happens in this connection would be alike for all the political parties,” he said.

According to him, there is nothing as concealment of accounts as it could also be an issue of subsidiary accounts which are not acknowledged by the party.

He said signatures of the PM on the document submitted to the ECP pertaining to funds was of no consequence. “Signatures of him on these documents mean that they have been audited before submission,” Hussain said.

Reactions

Commenting on the ECP report, Pakistan Peoples Party Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari said PM Imran Khan’s “ugly face tainted with corruption” had been exposed. “Imran Khan had taken an oath of telling the truth, but instead, he hid PTI’s bank accounts from the ECP,” he said in a statement.

PML-N President Shehbaz Sharif said the PTI had been running away from foreign funding case for the last seven years but now the ECP had exposed him.

Reacting to development, Prime Minister Imran Khan said: “The more accounts are scrutinized, the more factual clarity will emerge for the nation to see how the PTI is the only political party with a proper donor base premised on proper political fundraising.”

“I am looking forward to seeing similar ECP reports on the funding of two other major political parties — the PPP and the PML-N,” the premier added.

PM Imran has graced NA sessions just 24 times

Prime Minister of Pakistan, Imran Khan has a checkered graph when it comes to him gracing the Parliamentary sessions during his party’s three and a half years tenure at the helm.

According to data provided by FAFEN, the Prime Minister of Pakistan was present in only 24 of the 274 sessions of the National Assembly which is only nine percent compared with total number of sitting of the House.

Last year during different sessions of the Parliament the government has been failing to meet the quorum in the House. It was customary on part of the PTI ministers and parliamentarians to commit a breach of the required quorum throughout the term. A number of times, the proceedings of the National Assembly were suspended when the Opposition benches pointed out that the quorum is not in place and that cause a lot of problems.

The data provided by FAFEN further showed that from January 25, 2021 to October 22, 2021, as many as 54 times the quorum was breached and 39 times it was found incomplete.

Another major criticism on Prime Minister Imran Khan is to dodge the Question Hour session following the parliamentary sessions. When the PTI came into power, the PM had vowed to regularly answer the queries of lawmakers in Question Hour of the National Assembly.

However, he has not lived up to that promise due to his lack of presence in a majority of sessions.

Meanwhile, according to the data compiled by the FAFEN, former Prime Minister of Pakistan Mian Nawaz Sharif attended the National Assembly sessions 40 times out of 319 sittings of the House during his term as the premier which is 12 percent of the total sessions held then.