Wednesday, 3 August, 2022 I 4 Muharram, 1444 I Rs 15.00 I Vol XIII No 34 I 12 Pages I Karachi Edition
KNOCKOUT PUNCH
PTI accePTed Illegal donaTIons, ecP rules g
commission asks ParTy To exPlain wHy iT sHouldn’T confiscaTe ProHibiTed funds
ISLAMABAD
a
staff report
nnouncinG its verdict in the so-called prohibited funding case involving Pakistan Tehreek-i-insaf (PTi), the election commission of Pakistan (ecP) declared the party of former prime minister imran khan in fact accepted millions of dollars from what it ruled were prohibited sources. The top electoral agency ruled the party received funds from 34 foreign nationals — including arif naqvi, a billionaire financier and former boss of now-defunct abraaj private equity firm — and some 351 businesses many of whom were based in australia, canada, the united arab emirates (uae) and the cayman islands. it added that during the probe, the party took ownership of eight accounts but kept 13 hidden. Hiding such information from the ecP is a violation of article 17 of the constitution, the agency said. last week, an investigation by the financial Times said naqvi “transferred three instalments directly to the PTi in 2013 adding up to a total of $2.12m.” “abraaj emails and internal documents […] including a bank statement covering the period between february 28 and may 30, 2013, for a
wootton cricket [an abraaj subsidiary] account in the uae, show that both companies and foreign nationals, as well as citizens of Pakistan, sent millions of dollars to wootton cricket — before money was transferred from the account to Pakistan for the PTi,” the fT reported. The commission said that financial details submitted by khan were found to be “grossly inaccurate”. The party has denied the accusations. it also issued a show-cause notice to PTi to explain why it should not seize funds the party received, the associated Press of Pakistan reported. Pending since 2014, the verdict of the closely-watched case was reserved by the commission in June. since then, the ruling Pakistan democratic movement (Pdm) coalition has been demanding that it be released “immediately” to “expose” the party’s chair. according to a report submitted to the ecP in January by a scrutiny committee probing the matter, the party hid funds worth millions of rupees from the commission. The report went on to claim the PTi had provided “false information” regarding its funding to the ecP, adding that a state bank of Pakistan (sbP) statement had revealed the party had received rs1.64 billion in funding and had not disclosed rs310 million of it to the ecP. The case was earlier referred to as the “for-
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Habib says PTi will conTesT decision
eign funding” case, but later the election commission accepted the PTi’s plea to refer to it as the “prohibited funding” case. The person who filed the complaint, party founder akbar s. babar, hailed the ruling. “all the accusations against imran khan have been proven,” babar, who fell out with khan, told reporters, adding that khan should step down from the party. The ecP released the cause list for the case on monday. The list showed the verdict will be announced by a three-member bench led by chief election commissioner (cec) sikandar sultan raja. PTI TO CONTEST DECISION: meanwhile, the PTi has decided to challenge the verdict in the supreme court. speaking to the press after the ruling was announced, farrukh Habib, the party’s central deputy secretary for information, called the verdict a victory of the party narrative that “this was not a foreign funding case rather a case about funding from prohibited channels.” He further said that those who propelled the narrative of the case being about “foreign funding” were disappointed the PTi, as a party, was not suspended. “we will give a befitting response to the [showcause] notice,” he announced. raising questions over the election commission, Habib noted the islamabad High court (iHc) ordered an indiscriminate probe into the accounts of all the political parties. while the scrutiny committee tasked in 2018 to probe the accounts of PTi completed its work on time, a similar committee established around the same period to investigate the accounts of Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and Pakistan muslim league-nawaz (Pml-n) was yet to submit its findings. Taking over the press conference from Habib, fawad chaudhry, the party’s senior vice president, said that most of the amount mentioned in the verdict was in fact sent from Pakistan nationals living abroad. “i don’t understand why Pml-n, Jui-f [Jamiat ulema-i-islam-fazl] and PPP have declared overseas Pakistanis as an enemy,” he said. seperately, in a tweet, chaudhry said the party had taken funds from “overseas Pakistanis”, not foreign nationals. “overseas Pakistanis are the backbone of Pakistan’s economy, and we would continue to rely on them for funding,” chaudhry told reporters. meanwhile, a third leader, barrister maleeka bokhari, said pro-government media groups “lost hope” today. she said the PTi was not the kind of party to accept foreign funding, however, the “propaganda” against it on similar lines was furthered for years.
ECP verdict a charge sheet against ‘certified liar’ Imran: PDM ISLAMABAD staff report
responding to the verdict of the election commission of Pakistan (ecP) in the so-called prohibited funding case, the ruling Pakistan democratic movement (Pdm) said the charge sheet proved Pakistan Tehreeki-insaf (PTi) chair imran khan was a “certified liar” who submitted “false affidavits” to the agency. khan’s party accepted millions of dollars in illegal funds from foreign individuals and groups, the commission ruled Tuesday. it found that PTi concealed 16 bank accounts and accepted donations from foreigners or foreign groups based in australia, canada, the uae and the cayman islands. The law bars political parties from receiving funds and donations from foreign individuals and companies. The verdict “charge sheets imran niazi [sic] for violating the constitution, submitting false affidavits [and] accepting foreign money. The nation should ponder over the implications of his politics funded by foreigners,” tweeted the prime minister. maryam nawaz, the prime minister’s niece and Pakistan muslim league-nawaz (Pml-n) vice president, called khan a “liar and money launderer”. The former prime minister “is the only politician of Pakistan who has been proven, in a single judgment with irrefutable evidence, to be a liar, corrupt, a money launderer, and acting on the influence of external forces,” she declared. “The idol of patriotism fell on its face today.” JEWISH CONSPIRACY: in a press conference in islamabad, shahid khaqan abbasi, former prime minister and Pml-n vice president, said the judgement has proved khan as the “biggest thief” of the country. He said that khan received funding worth rs1.5 billion through illegal means. Those who donated to khan include people and entities from india and israel, he claimed. massive sums were also received from the united states, he said, adding the law does not allow for funds from even a single foreign national, let alone a brigade of them. “if the amount was meant for welfare, then how were rs550 million transferred into the accounts of the political party?” asked abbasi. “The whole conspiracy stands exposed before the masses as the funds were received by the PTi from foreign nationals and companies to do politics in Pakistan,” the Pml-n leader said, adding “the law will take its course on the matter.” meanwhile, minister for information and broadcasting marriyum aurangzeb said the decision confirmed the claim khan committed wrongdoing.
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Corps commander among six martyred in helicopter crash ISLAMABAD staff report
search teams found the wreckage of a Pakistan army helicopter that went down the previous day in the nation’s flood-stricken balochistan, the inter-services Public relations (isPr) said Tuesday. a general and five others on board were martyred, it said. The aircraft had lost contact with the air-traffic control tower in balochistan on monday evening while flying on a relief mission in a flood-hit area in the southwest. in a statement on Twitter, the military’s media wing said “the wreckage of unfortunate heli[copter] which was on flood
relief operations found in musa Goth, windar, lasbela.” “all six officers and soldiers including lt. Gen. sarfaraz ali embraced shahadat [martyrdom],” it added. lt. Gen. ali was supervising relief operations in the province. Gen. ali, commander of Quetta corps, brigadier amjad Hanif, brigadier muhammad khalid, major saeed ahmed, major Talha manan and naik mudassar fayyaz were aboard the illfated chopper. The army maintained that the accident had occurred due to bad weather as per initial investigations. The statement said that, according to an initial probe, the
crash happened due to bad weather. General sarfaraz was a veteran of military operations conducted during the war on terror and was awarded the Tamghae-basalat twice for gallantry on the battlefield. He is survived by his wife, three sons and three daughters. a native of lahore, the general officer was commissioned 6 azad kashmir regiment in march 1989 and served for 33 years in Pakistan army. major General amjab Hanif, director general Pakistan coast Guard, is survived by his wife and a daughter and two sons. He belonged to rawlakot in aJk and was commissioned in the 19
azad kashmir regiment in april 1994 and served for 29 years in Pakistan army. brigadier muhammad khalid, commanding the 12 corps engineers, is survived by three daughters and three sons. Hailing from faisalabad, he was commissioned in the 20 engineer battalion in 1994 and served for 29 years. major saeed, the pilot of the ill-fated aircraft, was married with a son and a daughter. He hailed from larkana. His co-pilot, major muhammad Talha manan was married and is survived by two sons. crew chief naik mudassir fayyaz was a native of narowal and is survived by his wife.
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