Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry has said allegations that the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) received funds from illegal foreign sources have been “proved wrong” after irregularities were detected in the audit reports submitted by the ruling party
Addressing the media following a federal cabinet meeting in Islamabad on Tuesday, Fawad said the PTI is the only political party in the country “which has an elaborate system of funding and accounting”
#Live: Minister for Information @fawadchaudhry along with Minister for State @FarrukhHabibISF addressing a news conference in Islamabad https://t
co/G3ga3p1hj4 — Radio Pakistan (@RadioPakistan) January 4, 2022 Under the system, he said, the PTI workers from across the globe funded the party according to their capacity
His statement comes a day after the scrutiny committee formed by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to probe the foreign funding case against the PTI has found irregularities in the audit reports submitted by the ruling party
In its report submitted to the election watchdog on Tuesday, the committee said, “As per the opinion of the Chartered Accountant Firms, the statement of Account fairly presents, in all material respects [sic], the cash receipt of PTI for each year mentioned in the table above [present in the report], on the basis of accounting described by the firm in its audit report
However, during the course scrutiny, the committee observed deviations The minister said the ECP acquired the report from the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) which he said was prepared during the last tenure of PML-N
Speaking about the irregularities, Fawad said out of the total 18 accounts attributed to the PTI, 10 accounts did not belong to the ruling party
Also read: PTI to extend full cooperation to ECP in foreign funding case, says Asad Umar He said of the 10 accounts, six were “subsidiary accounts” and the other four had no link with the party
While explaining the two major transactions of Rs160 million and Rs150 million, the information minister said there were duplicated by the ECP committee during the audit
He also said that the PTI has submitted the record of “each penny” to the ECP and demanded it to compare accounts of all political parties “so that people should know which party has a transparent funding record”
“From the first day, we want that the election commission makes a comparison of all the parties’ foreign funding before the public so that it could be known where they all stand,” the minister added
All the other parties had no such system as they were “patronised” by feudals or businessmen, who the minister said gave them funds
Fawad lashed out at former premier Nawaz Sharif for using the accounts of his party Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) to “launder” ill-gotten money
An amount of Rs80 million was deposited in the PML-N account which was later withdrawn by him using certain tactics
Citing the example of Shaukat Khanum hospital, he said Prime Minister Imran Khan was the only person who had been entrusted by the people of Pakistan with their money
About 70 per cent of the patients at Shaukat Khanum hospital are getting free treatment as it received donations worth billions of rupees from across the globe in the name of PM Imran Khan, he also said
(With additional input from APP)
| Date: | 05-Jan-2022 | Reference: | View Original Link |
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