- PTI declares Rs 1.3 billion funds from 2008-13
- Asad Umar says PTI would cooperate with ECP
- Farrukh Habib asks CEC to probe into funding of PML-N, PPP
ISLAMABAD: The Scrutiny Committee formed by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to investigate the foreign funding case against the ruling PTI has found irregularities in the audit reports submitted by the party.
The committee, in its report submitted to the election watchdog on Tuesday revealed that during the course scrutiny, the committee observed deviations in figures as the same do not reconcile with the bank statements.
It also pointed out that the audit report submitted to the CEC deviated from the accounting standards as “no date has reflected” by the CA firm.
“No date has been reflected by the Chartered Accountant firm in its audit report issued to CEC in 2012-13, which is a material deviation from accounting standards. Hence the date has been reflected in the above table as ‘Nil’,” it added.
The report further revealed that during these five years, the CA Firms issued the same text of audit report, adding that the PTI changed its firm last year.
It further stated that the petitioner provided documents pertaining to the receipt of funds through fundraising, donations and contributions by [the] PTI from [the] USA and other countries.
It is pertinent to note that during Tuesday’s hearing of the foreign funding case at the ECP, PTI leader and State Minister for Information Farrukh Habib urged the election watchdog to “complete scrutiny of [the] PPP and PML-N accounts” at the earliest.
The ECP, however, asked the minister whether the hearing underway was regarding the PML-N and PPP accounts. The three-member bench headed by the chief election commissioner (CEC) told him to submit a separate petition if he wanted to.
During the hearing, counsel Ahmed Hassan requested the ECP to provide the petitioner with a copy of the scrutiny report and related material. The PTI counsel objected to his request, saying that the report was only meant for the concerned parties.
An ECP member said that the hearing was not ‘in-camera’. PTI lawyer Shah Khawar responded that the commission can make the report public after the submission of the ruling party’s comment on it.
“The report should be kept confidential till then,” he added. He urged the ECP to wait till the scrutiny of other political parties is completed and the peruse the reports together.
“How can we examine all the reports together?” the CEC retorted and directed the copies of the report to be shared with the concerned parties in the case.
CEC Sikandar Sultan Raja, however, directed the scrutiny committee to submit a report on the progress made regarding the accounts of the PPP and PML-N within 10 days.
Akbar S Babar’s counsel Ahmed Hasan said that his client was not even provided with the data collected and compiled by the ECP itself. “Let us go through the report and then feel free to make it public,” said the PTI lawyer.
It is a common practice that relevant case records are public, but in this case, the record was kept confidential at the behest of the defendant, Babar’s counsel added.
PTI lawyer Shah Khawar said the ECP should give an order to keep the report secret. At this, the ECP bench said how can the commission give such an order during a public hearing of the case.
CEC Raja said there was a consensus in the ECP that there was no reason to keep the report confidential. He adjourned the case for a week, but at the request of the PTI counsel, the hearing was postponed for 15 days.
Asad Umar says PTI would cooperate with ECP
Meanwhile, Planning Minister Asad Umar on Tuesday assured the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) that PTI will provide full cooperation in the foreign funding case against it.
Flanked by Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting Farrukh Habib outside the ECP in Islamabad today, Umar said that the PTI collected funds in the most transparent manner and the nation has full confidence in the leadership of Prime Minister Imran Khan.
The federal ministers addressed the media at the commission’s office following their appearance in the foreign funding case.
“Major blames were also made in the past by big leaders,” the planning minister said. “[Slain former premier] Benazir Bhutto made allegations that Nawaz Sharif had party funding from Osama bin Laden,” he added.
Asad said that the PTI had filed a petition with the ECP to summon the reports from the three scrutiny committees. “I have no doubt that when [the] ECP makes the party funding report public, the masses will see that it was Prime Minister Imran Khan who collected the funds in the most transparent manner and that is why people trust him,” he said.
The minister further added that the secret accounts of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) were coming to the surface. He was referring to the declaration made by Habib a day earlier.
Earlier on Monday, Farrukh Habib said the perusal of PML-N’s financial documents had revealed that nine accounts were hidden by the party from the national election watchdog.
Speaking on the occasion today, Habib said that the scrutiny committees should immediately submit their reports regarding the PML-N and PPP to the commission.
“Facts should come forth as to why nine party accounts of the PML-N and 11 accounts of the PPP were kept secret,” the state minister said, adding that these facts should not be concealed.
PTI declares Rs 1.3 billion funds from 2008-13
The PTI has declared a whooping Rs 1.3 billion funds in five years accounts from Year 2008-13.
“The party has disclosed only 12 from total 77 accounts, while 53 bank accounts and Rs 310 mln funds were concealed,” says the audit report submitted to the ECP.
“Two bank accounts of PTI in 2008 and 2009 were not disclosed,” the report reads. “The Party also didn’t give access to its New Zealand and Canada accounts,” the scrutiny report said.
“The State Bank has also disclosed about the undeclared funds in its report,” the scrutiny committee said.
“The cash receipts not match with the bank accounts,” the report read. “The party expenses from 2009-13 were also not matching the income,” according to the report.
“The audit report not bearing the date, which is against the accounting rules,” report read.
The details of the PTI accounts from the State Bank have also been annexed in the report of the scrutiny committee.
According to sources, the report also included the details of
dollar-operated accounts in Pakistan.
Moreover, in the report references have been given from Indian, French and Australian laws, sources said.
The details of PTI accounts audit from 2008-13 have been annexed with the report.
The scrutiny committee has also attached its analysis of the bank accounts with the report submitted to the ECP.
No foreign funding received by PTI: Fawad Chaudhry
Minister for Information and Broadcasting Fawad Chaudhry said that PTI is the only political party in the country that had created a “legal, detailed and elaborate” system for funding.
While refuting all allegations of the PTI receiving foreign funding, Fawad said told a presser that there were two relevant transactions of Rs150m and Rs160m which had been duplicated and therefore counted twice by the committee.
“The transaction of Rs160m was counted twice because we received money in the central account and transferred it to another. So there was duplicity in the [scrutiny committee] report,” he said.
He said Rs150m was transferred from the centre to the provinces from a PTI subsidiary which was also counted twice, adding that these facts would be presented before the ECP during the arguments in the case.
Chaudhry further said that the information taken from the State Bank of Pakistan was before the 2018 general elections. “The report is about period before we came into power and from the tenure of the PML-N government.”
The minister called on the election commission to also conduct a scrutiny of the accounts of the two other major political parties — the PPP and the PML-N. “It is important to have a comparison on the accounts of Nawaz Sharif and the PML-N as well as the PPP,” he added.
Responding to a question, the minister said that it would be better if the ECP made the report public.
“We can’t make the report public and the ECP has to do it. And perhaps they should because [the lack of the report] perpetuates fake news”.
While highlighting the details of the report, the minister said it showed that the PTI had 26 accounts out of which eight were non-active.
“Out of the remaining 18 accounts, eight are functional which have transactions and also show funds coming in.”
He said 10 accounts in question did not actually belong to the PTI. “Six accounts are subsidiary accounts […] and the party has distanced itself from the remaining four,” he asserted.
The minister further said that PTI workers across the world ‘fund’ the party.
“People give $10, $25, $55 or $100,” he said, adding that people trust the prime minister with their money, especially since he had constructed the Shaukat Khanum Memorial Cancer Hospital.
He said that the hospital was able to provide free healthcare to 70 per cent of its patients as it received billions in donations on the basis of the premier’s name.
The minister also took the opportunity to thank the PTI’s chief accountant and his team for handling the party’s finances for an extended period of time, reiterating that the party had an “elaborate accounting system”.
The minister claimed that it was now evident that there was “no question of foreign funding”, adding that PM Imran had always given a record of each and every single penny and the PTI had done the same.
