ISLAMABAD: Ruling party Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) has denied that its employees received foreign funding in their personal bank accounts, sayings its one of the senior party office-bearers was misquoted in the media reports in this regard.

The Scrutiny Committee of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) hearing Foreign Funding Case met on Monday. During the case hearing, the Committee reviewed the reply submitted by the PTI regarding allegations surfaced in some media reports that four employees of PTI Central Secretariat received funds from abroad in their personal bank accounts.

The ruling party denied these allegations, saying the party’s Secretary Finance was misquoted in the media reports and an impression was tried o be given as if the ruling party admitted having received foreign funding in the personal accounts of its employees, which, the PTI denied.

The Scrutiny Committee meeting was adjourned as the Committee members had commitments in the Supreme Court of Pakistan.

“The PTI first admitted having received funds in the personal bank accounts of its employees and now it is denying,” Akbar S. Babar, the petitioner against PTI in Foreign Funding case, told the media outside the ECP.

He said the Committee’s decision not to disclose the details of 23 ‘secret’ bank accounts of PTI is illegal. “Prime Minister Imran Khan himself said during his visit to Wana (South Waziristan) that he wanted open trial in Foreign Funding case but PTI is not ready to disclose the details of its 23 secret bank accounts,” he said.

It merits mentioning here that PTI has submitted the entire record of all the 40,000 overseas donors to the Scrutiny Committee in Foreign Funding case.

The record including the details of donations from overseas Pakistanis including LCC (Life Cycle Costing) account, the names, addresses, computerised national identity card numbers and contact numbers of the overseas donors, the details of related bank transactions, relevant bank statements, and receipts of relevant financial activities were submitted by the PTI to the committee, according to an ECP official.

The three-member Scrutiny Committee is headed by ECP Director General (Law) Muhammad Arshad as its Chairman and includes DG (Audit) Defence Services Masood Akhtar Sherwani, and Controller Accounts Air Force Muhammad Faheem as its members.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2021