Pakistan: FIA to send another notice to Imran Khan on party’s foreign funding case

Islamabad [Pakistan], August 19 (ANI): Former Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan is in trouble as the country’s Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) is sending another notice to him on Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf ‘s (PTI) foreign funding case, media reports said citing sources.
According to Pakistan’s local media outlet Geo TV citing FIA sources, if Khan does not cooperate on three notices then the probe agency will issue an arrest warrant against Imran Khan.
The FBI investigations revealed that five more foreign companies were allegedly funding the former ruling party which were not mentioned in the reports submitted to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) or the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR).
Earlier, FIA directed PTI Chairman Imran Khan to provide records of all individuals and national and international companies as well as the institutions that have been funding his party, local media reported on August 14.
In a letter cited by The News International newspaper, the FIA Islamabad Zone deputy director asked for all information in 15 days. The letter was addressed to the PTI chairman and secretary general.
The PTI should provide records of all its organisations and trusts since 1996. The record of the amounts received as the membership fee since the establishment of the party should also be provided, the letter stated as per The News International.
It added that the PTI has been asked to provide the annual statement of all the accounts opened till now, besides the list of all the party officials along with their identity card numbers.
Moreover, FIA had summoned 10 other leaders of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf after former National Assembly Speaker Asad Qaiser, in reference to the ongoing probe into PTI’s prohibited funding case.
The probe agency has identified four employees of the PTI secretariat, whose personal and salary accounts were used for receiving foreign funding.
The agency said funds were received in the bank accounts of Muhammad Arshad, Tahir Iqbal, Muhammad Rafique, and Nauman Afzal. FIA earlier constituted a six-member team to probe the case.
This investigation came a few days after the three-member Election Commission of Pakistan bench in a unanimous verdict ruled that the PTI received prohibited funding in the case pending since 2014, Geo News reported.
Akbar S Babar, the man who blew the lid off the scam involving the inflow of dubious foreign funds into Imran Khan’s political outfit Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) formally approached the FIA to initiate a probe against the PTI on Wednesday.
Babar told the FIA that the PTI’s financial board in 2011 illegally authorised four employees of the party’s central secretariat to collect donations in their personal accounts from within Pakistan and abroad.
A sum of Rs 11.104 million was deposited in the accounts of the PTI employees, which was beyond their known sources of income, Babar said in his letter.
He wrote that the funds were received through the accounts of employees Tahir Iqbal, Muhammad Nauman Afzal, Muhammad Arshad, and Muhammad Rafiq. On August 4, the Pakistan government decided to file a disqualification reference against Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan after the verdict of the prohibited funding case and the federal cabinet accepted the recommendation.
Pakistan’s Information Minister Marriyum Aurangzeb said that PTI was declared a ‘foreign-funded party’ in light of the ECP verdict, according to ARY News.
In its verdict, the ECP observed the ‘unknown accounts’ and said that hiding accounts are a “violation of the Constitution”. Moreover, it found that PTI Chairman Imran Khan submitted a false Nomination Form I.
The Commission found that the donations were taken from 34 countries in fundraising. These included America, Australia, and the UAE, Geo News reported. (ANI)