ISLAMABAD
At a time when Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and his coalition government is demanding an early judgment on former PM Imran Khan’s PTI’s prohibited funding case, a UK based newspaper has shockingly revealed how Pakistani tycoon Arif Naqvi was involved in the party’s finances and how a significant portion of its funding in 2013 was of foreign origin.
According to a report by the Financial Times, Naqvi had transferred three installments worth 2.12 million dollars directly to PTI accounts in 2013. At the centre of the saga is Wootton Cricket Ltd, a Cayman Islands-incorporated company owned by Naqvi, and the money from charity fundraisers, such as the “Wootton T20 Cup”, to bankroll PTI.
According to the report, a Dubai based company, owned by Naqvi had hosted the cricket tournament. The guests were asked to pay between £2,000 and £2,500 each to attend, according to the UK publication. Quoting, Naqvi, it added that that the money went to unspecified “philanthropic causes”.
According to the law, any political party in Pakistan is prohibited from receiving funds from any foreign company or national. However, FT’s report revealed that both foreign companies and foreign nationals, as well as Pakistanis, sent millions of dollars to Wootton Cricket after which funds were transferred to the PTI in Pakistan.
Reacting to this report, Former Minister and PTI leader Fawad Chaudhry urged Pakistani media Friday to avoid denouncing Pakistani nationals working abroad such as Naqvi, as an ‘Israeli and Indian lobby’ continuously works against any Muslim or Pakistani, gaining influence globally.
“I call out Pakistani media, especially Geo group, to avoid portraying your own people as villains, just because US [government] has sued them,” Chaudhry said in his tweet on Friday. “Arif Naqvi’s Abraj [group of companies] had become an entity having assets worth 14 billion dollars. Whenever any Muslim, especially a Pakistani becomes influential to a certain limit, Israeli lobby dislikes it,” he claimed.
In another tweet later, the former minister alleged some Pakistani media houses of ‘twisting’ the matter in a certain way. “Interestingly despite the fact that Sharif Brothers received 20 M USD is mentioned only as passing remarks whereas legal funding of 1.3 M USD to PTI is pegged as something drastic, angling of FT is worse than Some Pak media groups,” he wrote.
The ECP has been probing into the PTI’s prohibited funding case, previously known as foreign funding case, since 2014. Back in 2014, A founding member of PTI and its former vice president filed a petition with the Election Comm¬ission of Pakistan, seeking an investigation into “financial malpractices in the party” and accountability of those responsible for it.
