ISLAMABAD: The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) on Tuesday lodged a prohibited funding case against the former Prime Minister and PTI Chairman Imran Khan.
The first information report (FIR) registered against the former prime minister has been lodged at the FIA’s banking circle police station.
According to the first information report (FIR), Arif Masood Naqvi — the owner of the Wooton Cricket Limited — transferred “ill-gotten” money to a United Bank Limited (UBL) account registered under the name of the PTI.
“The purpose stated in the swift messages of the transactions is ‘agreed transfer’ to disguise the true nature, origin, location, movement and ownership of these funds. Arif Masood Naqvi is also the founder/owner of Abraaj Group, UAE, which collapsed in 2018. Arif Masood Naqvi lied about the performance of Abraaj’s funds by inflating their value,” the complaint added.
“As a result of engaging in illegal activities in the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) and abusing investors’ funds, the Dubai Financial Services Authority (DFSA) fined two Abraaj Group firms. The regulator fined Abraaj Investment Management Limited and Abraaj Capital a total of $299.30 million in penalties each.
It further said that Naqvi was also facing trials in the United Kingdom and the United States for defrauding investors.
The complaint named 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 as signatories/beneficiaries of the PTI account in question.
“PTI submitted an affidavit of Arif Masood Naqvi before the Election Commission of Pakistan stating therein that all the amounts collected in the accounts of WCL were submitted into PTI’s account in Pakistan. This affidavit has been proved to be false/forged as two more transactions were also made from WCL to two different accounts in Pakistan in May 2013.”
The ECP’s decision in the illegal funding case against the PTI, formerly known as the foreign funding case, was released last month and found that the party had indeed received unlawful funding.
The decision in the case brought by PTI founding member Akbar S. Babar, which had been waiting since November 14, 2014, was made public by a three-person ECP bench led by Chief Election Commissioner Sikander (CEC) Sultan Raja.
The Wootton Cricket Limited, run by business magnate Arif Naqvi, provided cash to the party, the commission found, “knowingly and intentionally.” It said that the party was a “willing recipient” of $2,121,500 in illegal funds.
According to the ECP, the party also “knowingly and willfully” accepted donations from PTI USA LLC-6160 and PTI USA LLC-5975, which were “hit by prohibition and in violation of Pakistani laws,” as well as Bristol Engineering Services, an organization with its headquarters in the United Arab Emirates, E-Planet Trustees, a private company registered in the Cayman Islands, SS Marketing Manchester, and PTI USA LLC-6160.
It continued by stating that PTI Canada Corporation and PTI UK Public Limited Company also provided donations to the party. “The sums received by PTI Pakistan from both companies are subject to restriction and in breach of Pakistani regulations.
