ISLAMABAD: A special court on Monday granted interim bail to Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan in a prohibited funding case registered by Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) against him and other leaders of his party till October 31.
Special Judge Central Asif Mahmood, while hearing the petition filed by the PTI chairman seeking interim bail, approved Khan’s bail against surety bonds of Rs100,000. The court issued a notice to the FIA over Khan’s plea.
During the hearing, Khan’s counsel Salman Safdar told the court that 10 people including Imran Khan have been nominated in the case by the FIA’s Corporate Banking Circle. He further told the court that the Islamabad High Court (IHC) will determine the jurisdiction.
According to a petition filed by Imran, “the case was registered against me maliciously; it is clear from the FIR that I am innocent, so my bail should be granted.” Since his political rivals could not find any charge of corruption against him, the FIA in questionable exercise and abuse of its powers has made hectic efforts to register a false and fabricated case against the petitioner based on a serious allegation, it says.
IHC grants protective bail to Imran Khan in prohibited funding case
The petition stated that the allegations in the FIR were based on assumptions and conclusions and criminal proceedings were started against Imran without any investigation. The petition also stated that the party had filed an appeal against the ECP’s verdict in the IHC and the matter was sub-judice.
The judge inquired about the allegations levelled in the case. If the allegation levelled in the case was related to the government employees then the case would fall under the jurisdiction of this court, he said, adding that if the case was related to bank employees then it does not fall under the jurisdiction of this court.
The judge remarked that the court has approved the interim bail of the accused as per directions of the IHC. He asked the defence counsel to satisfy this court about jurisdiction during the next hearing.
The FIR over alleged false affidavits, lodged by the FIA in Islamabad, includes sections 420, 468, 471, 477-A, and 109 read with sections 5 and 23 of the Foreign Exchange Regulation Act 1947. The Abraaj owner transferred $2,121,500 of his “ill-gotten” money to a PTI account in the UBL. The signatories of the UBL account included Imran Khan and Saifullah Nyazee among other PTI leaders, the FIR says.
“The purpose stated in the swift messages of the transactions is ‘agreed transfer’ to disguise the true nature, origin, location, movement and ownership of these funds. Arif Masood Naqvi is also the founder/ owner of Abraaj Group, UAE, which collapsed in 2018. Arif Masood Naqvi lied about the performance of Abraaj’s funds by inflating their value,” the complaint added.
“Therefore, Dubai Financial Services Authority (DFSA) imposed penalties on two Abraaj Group companies for carrying out unauthorised activities in Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) and misusing investors’ money. The regulator imposed penalties amounting to $299.30 million on Abraaj Investment Management Limited and Abraaj Capital, respectively.
“PTI submitted an affidavit of Arif Masood Naqvi before the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) stating therein that all the amounts collected in the accounts of WCL were submitted into PTI’s account in Pakistan. This affidavit has been proved to be false/ forged as two more transactions were also made from WCL to two different accounts in Pakistan in May 2013.”
Copyright Business Recorder, 2022
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