Web Desk (LTN NEWS): Akbar S Babar asked the Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Wednesday to be added to PTI appeal against the Election Commission of Pakistan’s (ECP) decision in the case of illegal funding.
Says that the case is “the biggest money scam in Pakistan’s history.”
Babar, a former member of the party who was also one of its founders, filed the case on November 14, 2014. This was after he and the PTI leader had disagreements about corruption within the party and breaking laws about how political money is spent.
The petitioner said that nearly $3 million in illegal foreign funds were collected through two offshore companies that were registered under party chief Imran Khan’s signature. The petitioner also said that the money was sent from the Middle East to the accounts of PTI employees through illegal “hundi” channels.
He also said that the foreign accounts that were used to collect money were not mentioned in the annual audit reports that were sent to the watchdog for elections.
This month, the ECP ruled that the PTI did, in fact, get illegal money and sent a notice to the party asking why the money shouldn’t be taken away. The party then went to the IHC and argued against the ECP’s decision.
Tomorrow [Thursday], a three-person larger bench of the IHC will hear the PTI’s appeal.
Today, Akbar S. Babar told the media outside the high court that he thought he “should be made a party to the case where the ECP’s verdict has been challenged” and that “the PTI has tried many times to get rid of us.”
“Illegal fund-raising has been made illegal,” he said, adding that “it is the biggest funding scam in the history of Pakistan” and that “leaders of the PTI are involved in the scam.”
Babar said that a report from the Financial Times “proved that the money came from the Abraaj group.” The Dubai-based group is said to have raised money for the PTI under the guise of “philanthropic causes” that were not specified.
Babar also said, “This case will change the politics of Pakistan, and the decisions that will be made in the next few days will open the eyes of the nation.”
The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) put together a five-person special monitoring team at the beginning of this month. This expanded the investigation into the illegal funding case against the former ruling party to the whole country.
The PTI had also asked the court to stop the FIA from acting after the ECP’s decision in the case of illegal funding. But the IHC had already ruled on the petition.
