Digital Desk: Imran Khan, the chairman of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), and other PTI officials have reportedly been charged with illegal funding by the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA). According to local media sources, the party's financial team and a manager of a private bank were also arrested in the case.
The FIA's Corporate Banking Circle in Islamabad received the complaint.
Arif Masood Naqvi, the owner of Wooton Cricket Limited, allegedly transferred
"ill-gotten" funds to a United Bank Limited (UBL) account that was
opened in the name of the Khan's party, according to a first information report
(FIR) in the case.
In the complaint,
the beneficiaries and signatories of the party's account were identified as
Imran Khan, Sardar Azhar Tariq Khan, Saifullah Khan Nyazee, Syed Yunus Ali
Raza, Aamer Mehmood Kiani, Tariq Rahim Sheikh, Tariq Shafi, Faisal Maqbool
Shaikh, Hamid Zaman, and Manzoor Ahmad Chaudhary.
According to the
complaint, the "agreed transfer" purpose was used in the fast
messages of the transactions to conceal the monies' true nature, origin,
location, transportation, and ownership.
The FIR claims
that the party's leaders broke the Foreign Exchange Act and were identified as
the owners of questionable bank accounts.
The FIR further
stated that Naqvi was being tried for scamming investors in the US and the UK.
"PTI
presented an affidavit signed by Arif Masood Naqvi to the Pakistani Election
Commission indicating that all funds collected in WCL's accounts were
transferred to PTI's account in Pakistan. This affidavit has been shown to be
false or falsified because two further transactions from WCL to two different
accounts in Pakistan were conducted in May 2013, according to the FIR.
In its ruling on
the PTI issue involving unlawful donations last month, the Election Commission
found that the party had actually received such funding.
The party received financing from Wootton Cricket Limited,
according to a three-member ECP bench led by Chief Election Commissioner
Sikander (CEC) Sultan Raja. It said that the party was a "willing
recipient" of USD 2,121,500 in illegal funds.
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