Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) has lodged a case against eleven people including Pakistan Tehreek Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan in foreign funding.
The other prominent accused in the case are Sardar Azhar Tariq, Saifullah Niazi, Syed Younis, Amir Kayani, Tariq Shaikh, and Tariq Shafi.
According to a First Information Report, PTI had opened an account in a private bank under the title of ‘Naya Pakistan”. The said accused are beneficiaries of the account.
A case was also registered against the manager of the private bank.
The bank manager allegedly allowed the illegal bank account to operate.
The account received $2.1 million from the Abraaj Group of Companies while PTI submitted Arif Naqvi’s affidavit to the Election Commission.
According to the FIR lodged at the FIA’s State Bank Circle police station in Islamabad, it is transpired that Arif Masood Naqvi is the owner of M/s Wootton Cricket Limited (WCL), UAE. Arif Naqvi transferred ill-gotten money to UBL Bank account No. 204418243 titled” Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf at Jinnah Avenue Branch Islamabad.
The detail of the three amounts that the bank received from M/s WCL is $324,000 on February 28, 2013, $1,300,000 on March 14, 2013, and $497,500 on April 02, 2013.
ECP claimed that the party had provided a false affidavit pertaining to its bank accounts and that it had discovered 13 hidden bank accounts that the party should have disclosed.
After the ECP reported that the PTI had received illegal donations in violation of rule A, the FIA launched an inquiry into the party funds in August 2022.
Khan’s party was served a show-cause notice by a three-member ECP bench a few weeks ago for concealing the receipt of illegal donations from foreign individuals and businesses. The PTI leader was repeatedly urged by the FIA Banking Circle to produce information about the bank accounts, but Khan responded through his attorney that he was neither accountable to the FIA nor could it compel him to do so.
Meanwhile, the FIA has traced five companies related to Imran Khan’s party that was operating in the US, Australia, Canada, Britain, and Belgium, and they were not mentioned in the reports submitted to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP).
Subsequently, the FIA has sought permission from the federal Interior Ministry to register the case under sections 420, 406, 468, and 471A of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) against Imran and other members of PTI.
