Background to the PTI's Prohibited Funding Case

Lahore : On November 14, 2014, PTI founder member Akbar S. Babar filed this case in the Election Commission. Petitions were filed to be heard or out of the jurisdiction of the Election Commission, but the decision of the case was reserved on June 21, 2022. The Election Commission has directed PTI to provide documents and financial records 21 times.

PTI changed 9 lawyers for funding case While Election Commission set up Scrutiny Committee in March 2018 to check PTI funding, Scrutiny Committee held 95 meetings in which PTI sought adjournment 24 times. While PTI filed 4 petitions against the petitioner’s presence in the committee, the Scrutiny Committee issued orders 20 times asking PTI to provide relevant documents.

The Election Commission rejected the report submitted by the Scrutiny Committee in August 2020 stating that the report was incomplete and not detailed. The Scrutiny Committee submitted the final report to the Election Commission on 4 January 2022. The Scrutiny Committee PT The 8 volumes obtained by the State Bank related to the i-bank statement were kept confidential and the 8 volumes will be handed over to Akbar S. Babar on the instructions of the Election Commission.

Read Also: Prohibited Foreign Funding of PTI Proved, Affidavit is False: EC

According to the report, PTI did not disclose the amount of Rs 31 crore in the documents given to the Election Commission, the Tehreek-e-Insaaf was given money in European countries and Middle East countries, except the USA, Canada, UK, Japan, Singapore, Hong Kong, Switzerland, Funding was received from other countries including the Netherlands and Finland.

The Scrutiny Committee gave a questionnaire to PTI regarding the details of funding from the US and other countries but no clear answer was given, access to foreign accounts was also not given by PTI.

PTI did not disclose the accounts of MCB, Bank of Punjab and Bank of Khyber in the statements, while according to State Bank data, PTI has 26 bank accounts in Pakistan.

PTI hid 14 bank accounts between 2008 and 2013. In response to the Scrutiny Committee report, PTI disassociated itself from 11 accounts and said they were opened illegally.

These accounts were opened by Asad Qaiser, Shah Farman, Imran Ismail, Mehmood Rasheed, Ahad Rasheed, Samar Ali Khan, Seema Zia, Najeeb Haroon, Jahangir Rehman, Khalid Masood, Naeemul Haq and Zafarullah Khattak.