ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), on Wednesday, sought resignation of Prime Minister Imran Khan and a complete scrutiny of the accounts of the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) in wake of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) scrutiny committee’s report.
Speaking at a news conference, senior PML-N leader and former Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi lashed out at the prime minister and his party, allegedly for hiding details of the party’s foreign funding. On the basis of the details in the report, he maintained that Imran Khan has lost his credibility and he cannot remain the country’s prime minister anymore.
“He [Imran Khan] must resign and present himself before the people of the country for accountability,” he demanded, adding that action should be taken against those PTI officials involved in the “illegal” activities with regard to the foreign funding as per the law.
“If the Supreme Court itself can become a trial court, [And if it can] topple a government and disqualify a prime minister for lifetime because he [Nawaz Sharif] did not receive a meager amount of money, then another prime minister [Imran Khan] who is involved in misappropriation of millions of rupees can also be held accountable. Why can’t the apex court ask him about the money disappeared from the PTI accounts?” he asked, while giving a reference to the apex court’s verdict in Panama Papers case.
He further demanded a complete scrutiny of all the PTI accounts should be undertaken, adding that it is the right of the people of Pakistan to know the facts behind the source of funding and the assets details of a political party.
To a question, he said that not only the PTI, but investigation into the accounts of all the political parties should also be undertaken. “We hope that the apex court, by using its power of suo moto notice, would itself take an action on the report,” he said, when asked whether the PML-N would approach the Supreme Court on the basis of the committee’s report.
Abbasi said that Akbar S Babar remained at senior positions in the PTI and was privy to all internal matters of the party, adding that the ECP’s scrutiny committee in its report has validated all what Babar had been saying about the mismanagement of the party funds. “This is a major evidence of a plunder that a political party is trying for the last seven years to avoid presenting any record of party funds. This is the fundamental fact of this matter,” he said adding that the PTI was not only reluctant to provide the record, but also made attempts not to make public, the hearings of the scrutiny committee.
He further maintained that the PTI also made an attempt that the report of the scrutiny committee is not made public and even not to be shared with the complainant. “Although, the report has not yet been released officially, yet we have the copy of it and now it is before the public. The report is only of five years and there is no record until June 2013,” he said, adding that the evidence and details of the accounts contained by the report were not provided by the PTI, but the committee with its own efforts obtained from the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP).
He further said that it was also not clear whether this is complete information or not, as the PTI has not shared any detail of the bank accounts with the scrutiny committee. “As per the accounts [provided in the report], in the five years, Rs1.3 billion has been deposited in the accounts of the PTI. The record of the SBP shows that a total of Rs1.6 billion arrived in these accounts. It means, around Rs300 million disappeared having no details as to where it has gone,” he further maintained.
In 2012-13, he added that the amount that has gone missing increased gradually, as the amount which disappeared in 2008-9 was lesser, and in five years around Rs300 million disappeared.
“It’s per the details provided by the State Bank that 20 percent of the total amount came in the accounts disappeared having no record. This is the fact behind the accounts of the PTI and also there is no concrete information of the total number of the party accounts,” he claimed, adding that the real funding came in the party’s accounts after 2013.
“If you look into the accounts from 2013 to 2018, the amount would reach to billions of rupees,” he further maintained, adding that this is the amount came from foreign countries only and these does not include the funding within Pakistan.
In 2012-13, only four accounts were declared to the ECP as per the annual practice, but according to the State Bank, the PTI had 18 accounts by 2012-13.
About the six foreign companies mentioned in the report, Abbasi said that Akbar S Babar has written that two of them were in the United States – one in Texas and another in California – both are PTI’s registered offices, and using these offices, two companies were formed with Imran Khan as chairman of both the companies “Wheth-er any Pakistani political party has legal permission to open companies abroad? Then, these companies started collecting money. The law of Pakistan says, you can only accept money from an individual that must be declared, but not from any company,” he said, adding that accepting money from a company abroad is against the law.
He said that no record has been provided of the two companies neither to the ECP nor the SBP.
He said that the committee through its own efforts collected the data from the website of the US Department of Justice, adding that as per the data only one company had received US$ 2.3 million.
Abbasi also pointed out that one transaction has also been made under which a cricket company in Dubai sent US$ 2.1 million into PTI’s account directly, while Pakistani law does not allow any political party receiving a single penny from any foreign company as well as such companies based inside Pakistan.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2021
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