PTI foreign funding case: Source of $0.43m transactions remains unexplained

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Tehreek-e- Insaf (PTI) received $0.43 million donations in a few transactions from the party's two accounts in the United States but did not to shared details and source of these funds with the ECP scrutiny committee. The party also couldn’t explain the source of funding of a few transactions from the United Kingdom and Australia.

The documents show that during the scrutiny process of the party's accounts, the PTI representative admitted before the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) scrutiny committee that they do not have the source and details of a few transactions from the USA, UK and Australia. The ruling party from 2010 to 2013 received $436,049 in four different transactions from the party's USA LLC-5975 and LLC 6160 accounts but there are no details about the source of these funds.

The Part-I of Volume 4 of the scrutiny committee’s report shows that the PTI received AUSD 21,803 from Australia during 2011-12 but it has no details or source of funds. In addition to this, the party received GBP 19,185 from the UK in 2009-10 but did not provide the source of funds. Apart from not sharing the source of funds, the State Bank of Pakistan’s documents handed over to the ECP revealed that the information about transactions of millions of dollars from 14 different foreign countries and hundreds of millions rupees’ local transactions into the party's bank accounts was not provided to the ECP authorities.

The complainant in the PTI foreign funding case, Akbar S Babar, had submitted a perusal report on July 13, 2021. The scrutiny committee’s report, which is based on the records requisitioned through the SBP, endorsed significant portions of the complainant's perusal report. The PTI representatives who appeared before the scrutiny committee admitted that it doesn’t have the source and details of the above-mentioned funds.

The documents further show that from 2010-12, the PTI received $3.36 million from its USA chapter but the information about these transactions were not shared with the ECP. As per the documents, the party received $618,940 from 6160 PTI-USA LLC 16599 Vellano Club Dr Chino Hills CA 91709-6633 in 2012-13. Similarly, the party received $819,880 from 5975-PTI LLC 315 Mapel Street Richardson TX in 2011-12 and $1,914,955 in 2012-13. Apart from this, the party received $2.20 million donations, including 2.1 million, from the offshore company Wooten Cricket Limited from the UAE in 2012-13. However, these transactions were concealed from the ECP authorities. The ECP through its letter dated July 03, 2013 requisitioned the list of all bank accounts maintained by the PTI anywhere in Pakistan from 2009 to 2013, with date-wise details of transactions, (2) Country-wise list of all fund transfers to the PTI accounts from abroad during 2009 to 2013 separately for each financial year, including names/particulars of remitters, and (3) monthly bank statements of all the accounts maintained/operated by the PTI in Pakistan and abroad for each financial year i.e. 2009 to 2013. However, according to the complainant Akbar S Babar, he did not receive the responses of 41 banks, who submitted their replies to the ECP via SBP.

When contacted, State Minister for Information and Broadcasting Farrukh Habib told this correspondent to send him a written questionnaire.

The state minister in his response to the queries said: “The case is subjudice before ECP. Every notarised detail has been provided to the committee and ECP. There are flaws, miscalculations and mis-reporting in the Scrutiny Committee Report. The legal counsel shall submit a reply, along with all details and differences on the upcoming hearing date before ECP. As per legal counsel's advice, as the matter is under judicial consideration and, therefore, prohibited from public discussion elsewhere.”