ISLAMABAD: A day after Financial Times published a report investigating how the PTI secured funds through cricket matches organised under a company owned by Abraaj Group founder Arif Naqvi, PML-N leader Muhammad Zubair said on Saturday this was a moment for party’s chief, Imran Khan, to “come clean” by accounting for his party’s funds and challenging the story in a court.
Addressing a press conference, Zubair also called on the Supreme Court to take suo motu notice and summon Imran in the eight-year-long prohibited funding case, of which the FT story was a “small part”.
Zubair’s statements are the latest in a string of criticism of the PTI over the prohibited funding case and demands by the ruling coalition for the case’s closure.
The prohibited funding case, previously called the foreign funding case, was filed by Akbar S. Babar and has been pending since November 14, 2014. Babar, who was a founding member of the PTI but is no longer associated with it, had alleged serious financial irregularities in the party’s funding from Pakistan and abroad.
The ECP had reserved its verdict in the case last month.
The FT on Friday published a story by Simon Clark — the author of “The Key Man”, a book exposing the purportedly irregular dealings of business tycoon Arif Naqvi — revealing how funds collected through charity cricket matches were used for the rise of PTI.
The report says fees were paid to Wootton Cricket Ltd, which, despite the name, was in fact a Cayman Islands-incorporated company owned by Naqvi and the money was being used to bankroll the PTI.
This saw renewed calls for the conclusion of the prohibited funding case, as leaders from the ruling coalition heaped criticism on Imran and the PTI.
Among them was Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, who tweeted: “Could it get more damning? The charade of self-proclaimed honesty & righteousness has been busted by the Financial Times story that details the flow of foreign funding into PTI bank accounts. Imran Niazi is a bunch of massive contradictions, lies & hypocrisy.”
The prime minister also dared Imran to file a defamation suit against FT “for publishing an indicting article”.
Referring to the premier’s tweets, Zubair said during today’s press conference that he was reiterating PM Shehbaz’s calls for Imran to “account for [his party’s financing] here and file a case against FT”.
“File a case and everything will be out in the open,” he added.
Further commenting on the FT story, Zubair said it simply narrated how illegal money, collected for charity, was channelled and diverted to the PTI’s account. “And it wasn’t even declared.”
Now Imran and the entire PTI leadership had an opportunity, he said.
“If you want to continue to portray yourself as the most honest, file a libel suit against FT and get an apology. And if they (FT) don’t apologise, file a case against them in a British court,” he reiterated.
Earlier in the press conference, the PML-N leader regretted that the prohibited funding case had been facing delays just because Imran and the rest of the PTI leadership were not ready to “give answers”.
He added that in 2014, when former PTI member Babar had filed the case, he had presented “very clear evidence” against the party with all relevant details, including all declared and undeclared sources of funding.
“Imran Khan claims that he is the most honest, he talks from a higher pedestal while pointing fingers at others and accusing them of evading accountability,” Zubair continued. “We say if you are the most honest, explain yourself.”
But, he claimed, Imran had been involved in hampering the case’s proceedings for years. “He at times goes to the high court and other times to the Supreme Court and get a decision [in his favour], or he manoeuvres to stop proceedings at the ECP.”
“It has been eight years now,” he said, adding that a new article would surface in the media every other day, telling tales of alleged prohibited funding to the PTI.
The PML-N leader said Imran had been telling the nation for years that Pakistan could not progress because there were different laws for the rich and poor calling for holding anyone facing allegations accountable.
“Yes there are two different laws,” Zubair said, adding that the law was different for the people and “privileged Imran Khan, also is commonly called laadla (blue-eyed boy)”.
He went on to lambast Imran, saying that the PTI chief had been refusing to account for finances in the prohibited funding case.
“There is a blatant financial irregularity,” he stressed, recalling that when Imran took the country’s reign as the prime minister in 2018, he committed to initiating the process of accountability from himself and his team.
“Where is accountability now?” he questioned, as he went on to list several cases of financial irregularities against Imran and other PTI leaders.
