Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader and Parliamentary Secretary for Railways Farrukh Habib has said that the PTI has provided details of its accounts to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP).
Talking to the media persons on Monday, the PTI lawmaker said that opposition parties have failed to provide any evidence regarding sources of their funding to the ECP. He alleged that Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) collected funds through money laundering.
He expressed the confidence that the ECP, being a constitutional institution, will fulfil its responsibilities and bring the facts to the fore.
He said that bookkeeping and maintaining of financial records and transactions for submission to the ECP are incumbent on all political parties, and the investigations of such records concern not just the ruling PTI but all political parties.
He maintained that the matter is an “open-and-shut case” which leaves no room for confusion since under Article 6(3) of the Political Parties Ordinance and Article 17(3) of the Constitution, all political parties were duty-bound to maintain financial records and submit them to the ECP. “This is [a matter for] all political parties especially the PPP [Pakistan People’s Party], PML-N and JUI-F [Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl],” he added.
He stressed that it has been four years since the formation of a scrutiny committee which has been hearing a case regarding details of the aforementioned parties’ financial records and receipts. The ECP has issued three written orders for the parties to submit their records yet they have failed to provide any, Habib said. He asked the opposition parties why they are so afraid to present their records.
The foreign funding case against the PTI was filed in November 2014 by Akbar S Babar, a founding member of the party. The case relates to allegations of undisclosed foreign funding of the PTI.
The PTI maintains it manages its funds with complete transparency. In a recent development, the party adopted the stance that if any illegal funds were collected through two US companies registered after Imran Khan’s written instructions, then the responsibility belonged to the agents managing the two limited liability companies.
Meanwhile, Adviser to the Prime Minister on Parliamentary Affairs Babar Awan has corroborated that the PTI handed over 40,000 relevant documents and details of donors to the ECP in connection with foreign funding case.
Babar Awan, while talking to a private news channel, clarified the legal and constitutional position of the ECP by saying that the Election Commission has no power to ban a political party in a foreign funding case.
He termed the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) a deceased alliance and said that Tuesday’s protest would be their last sob. He said that PDM’s protest outside ECP is neither political nor constitutional and they are willing to target PTI and topple the incumbent government on the basis of foreign funding allegations.
Awan said that the Supreme Court (SC) has already given a ruling in a scenario similar to the petition being raised by the opposition parties. The top court’s full bench had taken two major decisions regarding the matters related to the prohibited and foreign funding.
He added that the case against PTI revolves around prohibited funding, whereas the PDM parties are facing allegations of foreign funding.
He revealed that foreign funding had been taken for the inclusion of women and winning elections in past, whereas PML-N supreme leader Nawaz Sharif had received funds from al-Qaeda chief and JUI-F from Libya.
Four political parties are facing the case of prohibited funding and, interestingly, PML-N gave arguments regarding the death of the man who had funded Rs100 million to it, said Awan, adding that the political party had failed to give any proof of the donor’s death. Nawaz Sharif had transferred Rs60 million to the bank account from the funds.
The third political party is PPP who argued for not having any records, whereas JUI-F leaders have also refused to provide proof.
Babar Awan said that ECP should publicise the facts about all four political parties. He predicted that PPP chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari will not attend tomorrow’s protest of PDM. All facts have been uncovered after the Broadsheet revelations and the suspicions of Prime Minister Imran Khan have come out true.
In case of NRO, not only the looted money was lost but the assets will go out of reach from being recovered. An absconding person is propagating against the national institutions including executive authority, judiciary, armed forces and election commission, however, his statement cannot affect the national politics, said Awan. The PM’s aide clarified that Imran Khan will not give NRO to Nawaz Sharif and PDM parties at any cost.
