The case filed by founding member of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) Akbar S. Babar, alleging financial corruption and violation of laws in collecting donations and managing the party funds, took a new twist when the petitioner claimed that the party was receiving funding from foreigners including US national Barry C. Schneps and US-born Indian Inder Dosanjh.
The former close confidant of PTI Chairman Imran Khan alleges that PTI and its leadership acted in violation of Articles 3, 5, 6, and 13 of the Political Parties Order, 2002 (the “2002 Order”) read with Rules 4, 5, 6 of the Political Parties Rules, 2002 (the “2002 Rules”).
Talking to Dawn.com, Babar said after waiting three years for the PTI leadership to take notice of the documented financial wrongdoings in the party and hold the corrupt accountable, he was left with no choice but to pursue the legal course.
The case was filed in November 2014 and the first hearing took place on January 19, 2015.
Babar said the PTI special auditor, appointed by Imran Khan in March 2013, was refused access to full information and was not allowed to audit party expenses including audit of donations and expenses of funds received for the 2013 elections.
He claimed that Imran Khan instead of taking swift action against the corrupt in late 2011 had decided to ignore the claims and chosen to protect and patronise the corrupt within the party.
After detailed hearings on jurisdiction as well as the merits of the case, Election Commission of Pakistan issued an order dated April 1, 2015 ordering PTI to produce the details of foreign funding.
Also read: ECP seeks PTI foreign funding details
The order was issued after review of all PTI audit reports submitted with the ECP which lacked the details of foreign funding required under the Political Parties Order 2002 despite a certification by the party chairman, Imran Khan.
On the next date of hearing of May 6, 2015, instead of producing the necessary details of foreign funding which the PTI lawyer Shoaib Shaheen had agreed to, the PTI changed its lawyer and appointed Anwar Mansoor Khan – the former Attorney General of Pakistan.
The new lawyer once again contested the jurisdiction of the ECP to hear the case instead of sharing foreign funding details.
In previous hearings, the PTI had claimed that the details of all the funds received have been duly recorded in the annual audit reports submitted to the ECP.
During the scrutiny of PTI audit reports by the ECP, the PTI lawyer failed to show any details of foreign funds in the audit reports as required under the law despite repeated inquiry by the CEC.
The PTI lawyer contended that since the audit reports were accepted by ECP at the time of submission, the commission cannot question the authenticity of the audit reports now.
The CEC responded that now that the matter is in dispute and a pile of evidence has been produced which allegedly shows that foreign funds from forbidden sources were allegedly received; it has the right to scrutinise audit reports submitted earlier by PTI.
During the hearings, the CEC on several occasions warned the PTI lawyer that the matter was extremely sensitive and the PTI counsel should be cautious in making arguments that may boomerang.
In one hearing, the ECP member from Balochistan Justice (retd) Fazlur Rehman read the relevant clauses that demand that political parties must submit details of foreign funding whereas the PTI audit reports show no details.
The PTI lawyer contended that all the political parties submit similar accounts to which the CEC responded that now that the matter is before the commission and in view of the seriousness of the allegations, the PTI must submit full details about source and scale of foreign funding.
The petitioner’s lawyer Ahmed Hasan contended that the PTI initially refused to acknowledge foreign funding whereas it operates a dollar account which is forbidden under the law and all the money received could fall into the category of money laundering.
Talking to Dawn.com, Akbar S. Babar stated that PTI continued to change its stance during the hearings.
In one hearing the PTI had questioned the authenticity of the evidence presented regarding over $ 2.3 million dollars donations received from the US from allegedly illegal and prohibited sources.
Babar stated that foreign donations must be accounted for as it raises questions about national security of foreign funding.
He said the three out of five board of directors of the Limited Liability Company registered in the US under the signatures of Imran Khan are identified as US Citizens. Similarly foreign companies and foreign nationals also funded PTI which is prohibited under law.
Babar said that during the last hearing held on September 15, 2015, the PTI’s lawyer Anwar Mansoor conceded that the ECP has the powers to confiscate funds of any political party received from illegal sources.
Babar said that case would prove to be a landmark to regulate political parties with far reaching consequences to bring transparency and accountability within political parties.
He said political parties are public entities and must be regulated under relevant laws. He said as long as political parties are not institutionalised, democracy would remain a tool to enter the corridors of power to serve vested interests.
He said the lack of regulation of political parties has turned them into personal fiefdoms which are run by individuals acting as emperors.
PTI must change from within if it is serious about changing society, PTI's founding member added.
After several hearings, finally a four member bench of the Election Commission of Pakistan headed by the CEC Justice Sardar Muhammad Raza reserved the judgment on the jurisdiction and/or merits of the case to be announced on October 8, 2015.
However, Imran Khan has repeatedly refuted the allegations of misuse and embezzlement of party funds as baseless.
When contacted, PTI lawmaker Dr. Arif Alvi said “it is unfortunate that some former PTI leaders like Akbar S. Babar are involved in blaming the party due to their personal grudges and nothing else”.
He claimed that PTI leadership has always been fair in the financial dealings of the party while it’s the other political parties — including PML-N and PPP — which remained involved in the cases of money laundering.
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