PTI received prohibited funds: ECP announces unanimous decision

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The Election Commission of Pakistan, while pronouncing the verdict in the PTI prohibited funding case, has said that PTI has taken prohibited funds.

When the decision of the PTI prohibited funding case started in the Election Commission, a lawyer came and recited it.

The Chief Election Commissioner Sikandar Sultan Raja while announcing the decision said that it is a unanimous decision, prohibited funds were taken by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf, 34 foreign donations were taken in fundraising, donations were taken from America, Australia, UAE, Tehreek-e-Insaaf also took funds from American businessmen, 13 unknown accounts have also come to light.

The decision of the Election Commission of Pakistan in the PTI prohibited funding case is being pronounced today after 8 years by a 3-member bench headed by Chief Election Commissioner Sikandar Sultan Raja.

What will be the future of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf? Will the party registration be cancelled? Will Article 62 (1) F be applied to Imran Khan for giving a false affidavit or will criminal cases be instituted?

The PTI foreign funding case was pending for 8 years, the judgment of which was reserved on June 21.

In 2014, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf founder member Akbar S. Babar filed a case of prohibited funding of PTI in the ECP.

What is prohibited funding case?

During the 8-year-long hearing, PTI sought adjournment 30 times and filed 6 pleas challenging the jurisdiction of the ECP or declaring the case inadmissible.

In the case, PTI changed 9 lawyers, during the hearing, Election Commission directed PTI, 21 times to provide documents and financial records.

ECP will announce decision on PTI foreign funding case

Election Commission set up Scrutiny Committee in 2018 to check PTI funding, which held 95 meetings.

PTI filed 4 petitions against the petitioner’s presence in the committee while the Scrutiny Committee issued orders 20 times asking PTI to provide relevant documents.

The Election Commission rejected the Scrutiny Committee’s report as incomplete in August 2020, after which the final report was submitted in January 2022.

The Scrutiny Committee constituted by the Election Commission kept secret the eight volumes obtained by the State Bank related to the PTI Bank statement and handed over the eight volumes to Akbar S. Babar on the instructions of the Election Commission.

The report stated that an amount of Rs 31 crore was not disclosed in the PTI documents, which were transferred from European and Middle Eastern countries as well as the US, Canada, UK, Japan, Singapore, Hong Kong, Switzerland, Netherlands and Finland. Funds were received from other countries as well.

The Scrutiny Committee gave a questionnaire to the PTI regarding the details of funding from the US and other countries, but there was no clear answer and the party did not give access to the foreign accounts.

According to the report, PTI did not disclose the accounts of MCB, Bank of Punjab and Bank of Khyber in the statements, while according to State Bank data, PTI has 26 bank accounts in Pakistan while they hid 14 bank accounts.

In response to the Scrutiny Committee report, PTI has disaffected 11 accounts and said that Asad Qaiser, Shah Farman, Imran Ismail, Mehmood Rasheed, Ahad Rasheed, Samar Ali Khan, Seema Zia, Najeeb Haroon, Jahangir Rehman, Khalid Masood, illegally opened in the name of late Naeem ul Haq and Zafarullah Khattak.