PTI at war with itself over £1m legal fundraising scandal

LONDON: Pakistan’s former prime minister Imran Khan’s party Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) has been rocked by a fundraising scandal after a London-based PTI group announced a £1 million legal fundraising campaign while PTI’s Pakistan legal team denounced the UK team for minting money in the name of Imran Khan’s release effort.

On Friday, solicitor Rashad Yaqoob told Geo News that from his prison cell, Imran Khan had instructed him to take up his legal case internationally under the banner of Human Rights Legal Aid Foundation (HRLAF). A search on the UK Companies House shows that Human Rights Legal Aid Foundation Ltd was set up on 26 June 2023 and has no previous history of fighting for human rights. Yaqoob said that on Imran Khan’s instructions, he had assembled a legal team of top UK lawyers, including Michael Mansfield, KC, Gareth Pierce and Ben Emerson, KC.

In a poster released to the media, Rashad Yaqoob also included the names of Kristiane Backer as the patron of HRLAF and PTI lawyer Mahtab Aziz as patron and Yasser Qureshi as Operations Director. The poster also included pictures of Imran Khan’s Pakistan legal team as partners.

The UK team asked for donations on an urgent basis and called on Imran Khan’s supporters to donate generously to take his case to the international courts. The solicitor and his team also appeared for video interviews on pro-PTI channels where appeal for donations was further enforced. Within minutes of the UK legal team asking for donations, Imran Khan’s lawyer in Pakistan issued a statement that he had gone underground and that the PTI legal team was infiltrated by spies and traitors. Also, others in the legal team denounced HRLAF and its members.

Sher Afzal Marwat, who is part of the HRLAF poster, said in a tweet late at night, “The traitors in Imran Khan’s legal team and the PTI Core Committee have put my life in danger. The presence of the traitors in the PTI Core Committee is beyond any doubt. They have passed on recordings of the Core Committee meetings to the opponents and even to media persons. Shockingly, the legal team’s zoom meeting details/recordings have been shared with outsiders, which has put my life and liberty in serious jeopardy. I have gone underground for the first time, and I may be caught by the designated team any time. I let the people at the party know and recorded voice messages about those chasing me. Yesterday, I went into hiding and I am not sure if I am safe but I have identified my chasers and sent their names to a group of lawyers for legal action in case I go missing. It is increasingly difficult to trust people within the very close circles of the party.”

Naeem Haider Panjutha, legal aid of the PTI chief, said that Khan had not given any instruction to raise money for his legal team. “Beware, no such instructions have been given by @ImranKhanPTI to any of his authorised legal team members. It is also clarified that no one has been authorised by Imran Khan to collect funds in this regard. Therefore, it is clarified and declared that no one shall give any funding for legal battles of Imran Khan either at National level or International forums. So please avoid,” he wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter.

Speaking to this reporter, Rashad Yaqoob said he also represented PTI’s Khadija Shah, Sanam Raja, Dr Yasmin Rashid among others.

However, PTI’s Zulfi Bukhari said that PTI has not entered into any agreement with the said organisation. “Let me make it categorically CLEAR! Nor Imran Khan or PTI has ever instructed or appointed any legal team so far. Nor does ANYONE have any mandate from him or the party. PTI has absolutely nothing to do with this organisation or fundraising linked to it,” he wrote on X.

Barrister Gohar Khan said that the PTI legal team will send a notice to those who tried to raise funds on behalf of the PTI chairman.

Since the ouster of Imran Khan, several legal and political appeals have been launched by social media broadcasters to raise money in the matters related to PTI and Imran Khan.

Rashad Yaqoob was part of the legal team of Senator Waqar Ahmed Khan, the former Pakistani minister for privatisation, and four members of his family when they were embroiled in a lengthy battle with Deutsche Bank over the property in the north London street known as billionaires row. Senator Khan had lost the complex litigation case involving at least £140 million and Deutsche Bank had repossessed his UK assets.