In its 68-page judgement, the Commission says PTI ‘knowingly and wilfully’ got ‘prohibited funds’ from 34 foreign nationals and 351 international companies including Arif Naqvi’s Wootton Cricket Limited Declares 13 unknown accounts linked to the party n Imran Khan has filed submissions which are grossly inaccurate and wrong n Serves notice onthe former ruling party for concealment of accounts details.
ISLAMABAD - The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), in a unanimous verdict, yesterday said the PTI received prohibited funds from 34 foreign nationals and 351 international companies based outside the country.
The ECP mentioned in its verdict besides issuing a notice to the PTI for concealment of accounts.
The three-member bench of the electoral watchdog body headed by ECP chief Sikandar Sultan Raja announced the verdict, in a case filed by PTI founding member Akbar S. Babar. The case had been pending since November 14, 2014.
In the written verdict, the commission noted that the party “knowingly and wilfully” received funding from Wootton Cricket Limited, operated by business tycoon Arif Naqvi. The party was a “willing recipient” of prohibited money of $2,121,500, the verdict said.
It mentioned that the party “knowingly and wilfully” also received donations from Bristol Engineering Services (a UAE-based company), E-Planet Trustees (a Cayman Islands private registered company), SS Marketing Manchester (a UK-based private company), PTI USA LLC-6160 and PTI USA LLC-5975 which were “hit by prohibition and in violation of Pakistani laws”.
The 68-page judgement says, “The Commission directs that a notice may be issued to the respondent party
funds may not be confiscated...The office is also directed to initiate any other action under the law, in light of this order of the Commission,” it added.
The ECP in its judgement declared that 13 unknown accounts have been found linked to the party. The judgement says, “This Commission is constrained to hold that Mr Imran Khan failed to discharge his obligations as mandated under the Pakistani Statutes. The Chairman PTI has or successive five years (2008-2009 to 2012-2013) under review and examination has submitted Form-1 and signed a Certificate which is not consistent with [the] accounting information before us which has been gathered and complied on the basis of information obtained from banks through [the] State Bank of Pakistan.” The verdict says, “Mr Imran Khan for the five years under review has filed submissions which were grossly inaccurate and wrong. Even during the course of scrutiny and hearing by this Commission, PTI continued to conceal and withhold complete and full disclosure of [the] source of its funds.”
In an argument about meaning thereby that the PTI is not a foreign-aided political party, it says, “Imran had personally issued certificates to the ECP in regards to Article 13 [2] of the PPO to the effect that PTI “does not receive funds from prohibited sources.”
About declaring bank accounts, the verdict says the party in violation of the Constitution failed to declare three bank accounts operated by the party’s senior leadership and the concealment of 16 bank accounts by the party was a “serious lapse”. Talking to the media, PTI founding member Akbar S Babar, said that this was a battle of truth versus strength. “I have no personal benefit in this case. The nation will get benefitted as Pakistani politics needed a pivotal change so that political parties were tested under the law,” he said, mentioning that in this eight-year journey he was tested many times.
He said that the ECP had agreed that the PTI received funding from foreign individuals and companies and that several certificates submitted by Imran were “fake”. To a question, he said blaming the ECP chief with threat was nothing more than fascism. “This verdict is a step towards uprooting PTI’s fascism,” he remarked.
It may be noted here that the Supreme Court has already discussed in detail the question of foreign funding in its 2017 judgment on a petition filed by Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Hanif Abbasi, who had sought the disqualification of Imran Khan.
The SC bench led by the former chief justice of Pakistan (CJP) Mian Saqib Nisar had referred to the case on December 16, 2017 to the ECP for a probe.
The judgment noted that it is the duty of the ECP to scrutinise accounts of political parties on the touchstone of Article 6(3) of the PPO read in the light of Article 17(3) of the Constitution.
However, the apex court in its judgment had noted that it is not the case that the PTI was formed or organised at the instance of any government or political party of a foreign country or is affiliated to or associated with any government or political party of a foreign country, or receives any aid, financial or otherwise, from any government or political party of a foreign country