Tag: PTI foreign funding case

  • Rana Sanaullah says that PTI Senator Saifullah Nyazee has been taken into ‘protective custody’

    Rana Sanaullah says that PTI Senator Saifullah Nyazee has been taken into ‘protective custody’

    Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah said Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Senator Saifullah Sarwar Khan Nyazee has been taken into “protective custody” by the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) for questioning in the party’s foreign funding case.

    In a press conference on Friday, the minister said, “He has been taken into protective custody, so he can be questioned.” He added that legal formalities will be fulfilled before arresting the senator if the agency deemed it necessary.

    Earlier, it was reported that the PTI senator was arrested in the foreign funding case. According to Geo News, he was arrested for the $625,000 transferred to the Insaf Trust account in 2013 in violation of rules and regulations.

    Prior to the minister’s clarification, FIA, in a tweet, said that no arrest has been made.

    “The senator has not been arrested by any FIA wing as yet,” the agency’s spokesperson said and condemned the reports circulating in the media.

    Earlier today, PTI leaders claimed Nyazee has been “picked up” by “unknown men” from outside the Senate premises in Islamabad.

    Addressing a press conference in Islamabad, PTI General Secretary Asad Umar said: “I have just received news that Saifullah Nyazee has been picked up from the Senate.”

    https://twitter.com/ShehzadGul89/status/1578290516856229893?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1578290516856229893%7Ctwgr%5Ecbcda1c3c0964b5c3947ce41901c263275373bea%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.dawn.com%2Fnews%2F1713931

    Former federal minister Fawad Chaudhry called Chairman of the Senate Sadiq Sanjrani to take notice of the incident.

    On September 13, the FIA Cyber Crime Wing raided Nyazee’s house. Two days later, Nyazee submitted a privilege motion against the Islamabad police and FIA over the breach of his privilege.

    He said the behaviour of the FIA and Islamabad police, including alleged harassment of his wife and daughters, was tantamount to the breach of privilege of the house of the federation and its member. Hence, the Senate chairman should take appropriate action on this breach.

  • UK agencies start investigation against Pakistani charities for misuse of funds

    The United Kingdom (UK) National Charity Commission (NCC) and National Crime Agency (NCA) have launched an investigation into the misuse of funds by Pakistani charity organisations for political purposes, Naeem Hanif reports for Samaa News.

    The investigation is being done to find out whether these charity organisations misused charity for political purposes in Pakistan or not.

    Both agencies launched the investigation after receiving several complaints. It is being reported that complainants also provided evidence to both agencies.

    The evidence includes the verdict of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) against Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) in foreign funding case, a report by the Financial Times that revealed the party’s foreign funding sources, and details of its bank accounts.

    Last week, the top electoral body ruled that the former ruling party did indeed receive prohibited funding

    and issued a show-cause notice to the party.

    The ECP said that the party, in violation of the Constitution, had received funds from 34 foreign entities. The party received funds from the United States, Australia, and the UAE. The ECP added that 13 unidentified accounts also surfaced during the probe in the PTI funding case.

  • PM Shehbaz urges ECP to announce ruling on PTI foreign funding case

    PM Shehbaz urges ECP to announce ruling on PTI foreign funding case

    Prime Minister (PM) Shehbaz Sharif on Tuesday urged the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to announce the “long-delayed judgment” in Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) foreign funding case.

    The premier took to Twitter today, urging the ECP to give the verdict in PTI’s foreign funding case, which was reserved on June 21.

    “I urge the Election Commission of Pakistan to announce the long-delayed judgment on PTI foreign funding case,” said the PM.

    The prime minister said that for long, Imran Khan has been given a free pass despite his “repeated & shameless attacks on state institutions”.

    “Impunity given to him has hurt the country,” added PM Shehbaz.

    The ECP reserved the verdict in the case nearly a month ago on June 21, following a hearing by Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Sikander Sultan Raja.

    On Monday, PTI Chairman Imran Khan criticised the ECP for being biased and demanded CEC Sultan Raja’s resignation over his alleged favouring of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N).

    “We have no confidence in this Chief Election Commissioner, he should resign. He conducted the Senate election, the Supreme Court allowed him to verify the Senate vote, the Election Commission and all political parties know that money runs in the secret Senate polls but this Election Commissioner did not follow it,” said Khan.

    “The biggest regret I have in the Punjab by-elections is on the Chief Election Commissioner as he has done dishonesty, there is no merit in him, it was found that typing mistake took place and four million people were shown dead. Had this happened elsewhere in the world, he would have resigned. We had eight cases with which we went to the Election Commission and it rejected them while the courts gave verdicts against it, which means the ECP deliberately gave decisions against us,” claimed Khan.

  • PTI takes ‘U-turn’ after Imran offers open hearing of foreign funding case

    PTI takes ‘U-turn’ after Imran offers open hearing of foreign funding case

    The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) doesn’t agree with Prime Minister Imran Khan over the open hearing of the foreign funding case against the party.

    On Jan 20, Imran addressed a ceremony in Waziristan, wherein he had called for the open hearing of the foreign funding cases against all political parties, including the PTI, to come clean.

    It seems that the PTI legal team doesn’t consider it as a good idea. According to a statement filed by PTI lawyer Shah Khawar in the Election Commission of Pakistan, the PTI has no plans to make its financial statement accessible and the statement of the PTI chairman was “misconstrued”.

    “The statement of party Chairman has been wrongly construed which is not tantamount to provide [sic] documents furnished by the answering respondents (PTI) and material collected by this scrutiny committee,” Dawn reported the lawyer as saying.

    The statement was filed in response to a plea submitted by PTI founding member Akbar S Babar — the petitioner in the foreign funding case. Babar had urged the ECP to make public the records of the PTI in the wake of the statement by the PM.

    Speaking to media, Babar said that PM Imran attempted to mislead the public by his statement. “The PTI has a poor record when it comes to transparency in the case,” he told reporters. Babar said that he and his lawyers would decide their future course of action after the committee’s order on Feb 9.

    The foreign funding against the ruling party case was filed by its founding member Akbar S Babar in 2014. The ECP had started fresh scrutiny of the PTI accounts — a process going on since March 2018.

    The PTI had admitted last month that its agents in the US might have been involved in the illegal funding without the knowledge of the party chief, Imran Khan.