After dilly-dallying for years, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) has finally admitted that many of its leaders had illegally opened and operated 11 illegal accounts without the knowledge of the party.
In a reply submitted to the Election Commission of Pakistan, the ruling party has admitted that National Assembly Speaker Asad Qaiser, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Governor Shah Farman and Sindh Governor Imran Ismail, senior Punjab minister Mian Mahmudur Rashid and many other party MNAs and MPAs operated the illegal accounts from 2009 to 2013 without the knowledge of the party.
The PTI has submitted its para-wise reply to the ECP scrutiny committee on March 15, 2022.
The PTI stated that these eleven accounts were operated by party leaders without the authorisation of the competent authority for the opening (PTI) bank account.
PTI admitted on page 112 of its reply to the ECP that “a total of Rs23.22 million was transferred to these accounts from PTI central accounts”. The PTI has admitted that “an amount of Rs57 million was deposited in the 11 accounts from local sources which were never accounted for with the PTI central accounts.
According to former PTI information secretary and founding member Akbar S Babar, the ECP scrutiny committee report was shared with the two parties on January 4, 2022.
At the same time, the PTI has filed two fresh applications seeking the removal of Akbar S Babar from the case and keeping the records secret from him.
However, the ECP rejected the two PTI applications and allowed the petitioner’s lawyer to proceed with his concluding arguments on the case pending before the ECP since November 14, 2014.
Babar said that the ECP scrutiny committee had verified the concealment of dozens of PTI bank accounts maintained in Pakistan and abroad.
He said that the 11 accounts were disowned by the PTI on pages 113, 118, 120, 132, 144, 157, 159, 169, 178, 197, and page 199 of PTI’s written reply submitted before the ECP on March 15.
Babar said that it was beyond any doubt that PTI Chairman Imran Khan submitted false and fake annual certificates before the ECP despite the fact that the party received billions of rupees and millions of dollars of illegal funding from foreign companies and foreign citizens.
In a tweet, while sharing the reply of the PTI to the ECP, Babar wrote: “PTI admits that Speaker National Assembly Asad Qaiser, Governor KPK Shah Farman, Governor Sindh Imran Ismail, Senior Punjab Minister Mian Mahmud-ur-Rashid besides several other PTI MNAs and MPAs of opening and operating eleven PTI accounts without the knowledge of PTI”.
Babar said the State Bank of Pakistan has shared details of PTI accounts and related data on the direction of the ECP to the scrutiny committee.
