KARACHI\/LAHORE: Admitting that his party had indeed received funds from businessman Arif Naqvi, former prime minister and PTI Chairman Imran Khan claimed on Thursday that all the funds came through banking channels and were disclosed in the party\u2019s audited accounts.<\/p>\n
His remarks came a day after the Financial Times published a story claiming that Mr Naqvi\u2019s company \u201cbankrolled the PTI\u201d despite Pakistani laws forbidding foreign nationals and companies from funding political parties.<\/p>\n
Talking to ARY News, Mr Khan called Arif Naqvi \u201ca bright star\u201d and a \u201crapidly rising Pakistani star in the global financial world,\u201d whose rise among powerful quarters \u201cwould have greatly benefitted Pakistan\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had known him [Mr Naqvi] for a long time [and] he gave a lot of money to Shaukat Khanum [hospital]. He used to live in Dubai and supported our fund-raising events,\u201d said Mr Khan.<\/p>\n
Mr Naqvi organised two fund raising dinners in 2012 for the PTI. The first one was in London where he organised a cricket match at his own ground and the second event was in Dubai where he invited top businessmen, added Mr Khan.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is called political fund raising. All over the world money is raised like this and PTI was the first party [in Pakistan] to raise money through political fundraising,\u201d Mr Khan said, while adding that the party has data of 40,000 donors who gave the money. Calling the charges against Mr Naqvi \u201ctragic,\u201d the PTI chairman likened his fall to that of the Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI).<\/p>\n
He added that as per his knowledge, in Mr Naqvi\u2019s, case no one has suffered any loss and everyone got their money back.<\/p>\n
Mr Khan also demanded the ECP probe the funding of PPP and PML-N along with the PTI, as he claimed that the two parties \u201craise money through funding from big businessmen\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAfter coming into the government, they favour those businessmen. This is called crony capitalism.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI had learned that in one instance, Nawaz Sharif used his party for money laundering and the PPP embezzled [Pakistan] embassy\u2019s fund in the US and moved it to their party\u2019s account,\u201d the former prime minister claimed.<\/p>\n
He added that if the government thinks it can disqualify him in the foreign funding case, the PPP and the PML-N leaders would also go to jail.<\/p>\n
Commenting on the report that Chief of Army Staff General Qamar Bajwa contacted US Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman for expediting the IMF loan program, Mr Khan said that this shows that neither the foreign governments nor the IMF trust the government and \u201cthat is why the army chief took the responsibility\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf the army Chief was contacting the US and seeking help, it means that the country was getting weaker.\u201d<\/p>\n
However, he added that the US\u2019 help would not come without any reciprocal demands and added that he feared \u201cthose demands would compromise Pakistan\u2019s national security\u201d.<\/p>\n
Linking the current economic crisis with political instability, Mr Khan said that when his government was toppled as a result of a conspiracy it led to political instability that tanked the economy.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou have seen that everything has been downhill since then. [All economic indicators, be it the] industry, tax collection, exports or remittances, have gone down,\u201d he said while adding that the only way to bring back political stability was free and fair elections.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
KARACHI\/LAHORE: Admitting that his party had indeed received funds from businessman Arif Naqvi, former prime minister and PTI Chairman Imran Khan claimed on Thursday that all the funds came through banking channels and were disclosed in the party\u2019s audited accounts. His remarks came a day after the Financial Times published a story claiming that Mr […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":274536,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-274534","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-top-news"},"yoast_head":"\n