ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Wednesday heard the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) foreign funding case.
PTI lawyer Anwar Mansoor argued that funds could not be taken from foreign governments, multinational or local companies and that a company registered outside Pakistan could not be called a local company.
He maintained that according to the Protection of Pakistan Ordinance (PPO) laws, funding from multinational and local companies is prohibited.
He said that as per the Election Act it is prohibited to take funding from any foreign source but the ban on funding from local companies has been lifted.
He said that no funding was received from any illicit source and that money came from outside but the allegation of illicit funding is false.
After hearing the arguments, the ECP adjourned the hearing till April 19.
Later, in a media briefing outside the ECP, Akbar S Babar said that the 11 accounts of PTI, which they admitted to having in writing but claimed that they are not associated with, were run by party leadership, including Asad Qaiser, Shah Farman, Imran Ismail, and others.
He added that these leaders have written indictments for their leadership for opening illegal accounts on one hand, and on the other, they are taking no action against these individuals.
He said that the PTI had claimed that they found out about these accounts in 2018 through state bank records, however, the accounts were being operated since 2012 with the signatures of PTI leadership.
Babar said that he had proof of two such accounts and had evidence that the former primary finance secretary of PTI was operating them on behalf of his party.
He claimed that four people from the secretariat were told to collect money in Pakistan and abroad and that these four secret accounts had millions of rupees which then shifted to their personnel accounts and were released, which is something that falls under money laundering.
He said that the PTI leadership had committed a crime by using workers’ accounts to receive donations and then hiding them even though the evidence was present.