LAHORE: The PTI Friday accepted that it had received funds from Pakistani businessman Arif Naqvi’s Wootton Cricket Ltd — a Cayman Islands-incorporated company — after a foreign publication reported that its donations were of foreign origin.
“All the records [related to those transactions] are available,” PTI Central Deputy Secretary Information Farrukh Habib told a press conference after a Financial Times report revealed that Naqvi “transferred three instalments directly to the PTI in 2013 adding up to a total of $2.12m” — which were of foreign origin.
The PTI leader said that there was no case against Naqvi or his Abraaj Group in 2012 and that the businessman had given £20 million to PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif and his brother, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, in “bribes”.
In his press conference Friday, Farrukh Habib said that a “media trial” is conducted against the party every now and then related to foreign funding.
“The case against PTI is not related to foreign funding, rather it is of prohibited funding […] foreign funds are used for working against an incumbent government; that’s not the case here,” he said.
He said that his party laid the foundation of funding in Pakistan. He added that overseas Pakistanis send $32 billion annually to the country and they also donate them to PTI.
He reiterated that the verdicts of PTI, PPP, and PML-N’s foreign funding cases be issued on the same date as he demanded that the ECP demonstrate responsible behaviour.
The PTI leader claimed that the PML-N hid 112 accounts from the election commission, PPP hid 11 and did not give records of Rs3.6 million to the ECP.
