PTI ‘hid’ Rs310m from ECP


A report by the Election Commission of Pakistan’s (ECP) scrutiny committee -- investigating into the foreign funding of the PTI -- on Tuesday unearthed that the party had concealed several accounts and around Rs310 million between 2008 and 2013 from the electoral body

It further disclosed that the party had received $44,000 from 88 foreign donors during this period

The undisclosed accounts have been mentioned in a report by the State Bank of Pakistan

The scrutiny committee has also included its analysis of the bank accounts in the report

The committee wrote in its report that the petitioner, Akbar S Babar, a former PTI leader, had failed to provide complete evidence of his claims

The evidence provided by the petitioner cannot be proved in a court

The body said it could proceed on the basis of the information provided by the parties

The committee in its report has cited Indian, French and Australian laws on prohibited funding

The details of the PTI’s funds and dollar accounts operated from abroad have been included in the report

The audit of PTI accounts of the SBP and US company Fara LLC are also part of the report

According to the report, the PTI has two companies registered in the US for raising funds

READ ECP scrutiny committee finds irregularities in PTI records From April 2, 2013 to June 30, 2013, the PTI had received funds in the US to the tune of $554,280

The PTI LLC had received $25,080 from 47 foreigners as well as $467,000 from Pakistanis

The other PTI company had raised another $2

344 million from February 2010 to June 2013

It probably raised $19,000 from 41 foreigners and $107,000 from 230 companies

The scrutiny committee obtained information from the websites of the petitioner and SARA

The details of prohibited funding from other countries were not provided by the petitioner and the PTI

Besides, no date has been mentioned on the PTI's audit report for the year 2012-13

This, the report added, was against accounting standards

The cash receipts provided by the audit firm also do not match the bank accounts

The report further pointed out that there was reluctance when the petitioner sought bank statements

According to the report, the PTI had disclosed only four of its 26 bank accounts

The SBP's bank statement showed that the PTI had received donations of Rs1

64 billion whereas it had only revealed an amount of Rs1

33 billion to the ECP

The body was also denied access to the PTI’s bank accounts in Canada and New Zealand

According to the report, two bank accounts of PTI in 2008 and 2009 were not disclosed

As soon as the details of the report were unraveled, Babar took to Twitter to express his gratitude to the Almighty, saying that he stood "vindicated"



Date:06-Jan-2022 Reference:View Original Link