Prime Minister Imran Khan on Wednesday welcomed the Election Commission of Pakistan’s (ECP) scrutiny of his party’s funding, which he said came through donations from overseas Pakistanis.
“The more our accounts are scrutinised, the more factual clarity will emerge for the nation to see how PTI is the only political party with proper donor base premised on proper political fundraising,” he tweeted.
His comments come a day after a damning report compiled by the scrutiny committee of the ECP noted that the ruling party had received funding from foreign nationals and companies, under-reported funds, and concealed dozens of its bank accounts.
The report also mentioned a refusal by the party to divulge details of large transactions and the panel’s helplessness to get details of PTI’s foreign accounts and the funds collected abroad.
In another tweet, the premier said he looked forward to seeing similar ECP scrutiny on funding of the other two major political parties, the PPP and the PML-N.
“This will allow the nation to see the difference between proper political fundraising and extortion of money from crony capitalists and vested interests in exchange for favours at the nation’s expense.”
According to the ECP’s report, the party under-reported an amount of Rs312 million over a four-year period, between FY2009-10 and FY2012-13. Year-wise details show that an amount of over Rs145m was under-reported in FY2012-13 alone.
The scrutiny committee was formed in March 2018 to completely scrutinise PTI accounts, but it took almost four years to present its report to the ECP, which was submitted in Dec 2021.
