ISLAMABAD: PTI chairman and former prime minister Imran Khan on Wednesday refused to respond to the Federal Investigation Agency’s (FIA) notice sent to him in the wake of the foreign funding case.
The FIA’s Commercial Bank Circle had asked the PTI chief to provide details of bank accounts.
The former PM and his party wrote to Amna Baig, the deputy director of FIA's Commercial Bank Circle in Islamabad, through his counsel Anwar Mansoor Khan.
“I am neither answerable to you nor obliged to provide information,” PTI chief wrote in his reply to the agency, threatening to take legal action if they don’t withdraw the notice within two days.
In his reply, Khan termed FIA’s act of sending him the notice as maliciousness stressing that asking for details and documents from his party is not within FIA’s scope. He added that the Election Commission of Pakistan issue a report and not a verdict.
Khan further added that merely on the basis of the report, ECP cannot order the FIA or any other organization.
“As per the Political Parties Act 2002, FIA does not have the authority to take action,” said the PTI chief, emphasising that there is a clash between the issued notice and the act.
Khan also highlighted that the ECP has been declared as an administrative institution by the Supreme Court of Pakistan for various decisions. Therefore, he added in his response, the ECP is neither a court nor a tribunal.
It should be noted that the FIA sought records from Khan regarding the total funds provided to the party by national and international companies and business firms.
Following the ECP’s judgment that ruled PTI received funding from prohibited sources, the FIA launched a country-wide inquiry into the matter.
In a letter to the PTI chairman, the FIA asked Khan to provide the record of the membership fee from the establishment of the PTI till now.
The investigation agency also sought annual statements of PTI’s bank accounts since 1996, the record of its registered and unregistered organizations and trusts from the party’s chief.
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