The chairman of the PTI and a former prime minister Imran Khan acknowledged on Thursday that his party had indeed received cash from businessman Arif Naqvi, but he insisted that all of the monies came through banking channels and were recorded in the party’s audited books.
His comments were made after a Financial Times article claimed that Mr. Naqvi’s company had “bankrolled the PTI” despite Pakistani legislation prohibiting foreigners and foreign companies from supporting political parties.
In an interview with ARY News, Mr. Khan described Arif Naqvi as “a bright star” and a “rapidly rising Pakistani star in the global financial sector,” adding that his ascent among influential circles “would have enormously benefited Pakistan.”
“I had known him [Mr Naqvi] for a long time [and] he gave a lot of money to Shaukat Khanum [hospital]. He used to live in Dubai and supported our fund-raising events,” said Mr Khan.
In 2012, Mr. Naqvi organised two dinners to raise money for the PTI. According to Mr. Khan, the first event was in London where he hosted a cricket match at his own field, and the second was in Dubai where he invited prominent businessmen.
“This is called political fund raising. All over the world money is raised like this and PTI was the first party [in Pakistan] to raise money through political fundraising,” Mr Khan said, while adding that the party has data of 40,000 donors who gave the money. Calling the charges against Mr Naqvi “tragic,” the PTI chairman likened his fall to that of the Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI).
He continued by saying that, to the best of his knowledge, no one had lost money in Mr. Naqvi’s case, and everyone had received their money back.
In addition, Mr. Khan urged that the ECP look into the PPP, PML-N, and PTI’s fundraising since he said they “raise money through funding from major businesspeople.”
“After coming into the government, they favour those businessmen. This is called crony capitalism.”
“I had learned that in one instance, Nawaz Sharif used his party for money laundering and the PPP embezzled [Pakistan] embassy’s fund in the US and moved it to their party’s account,” the former prime minister said.
He stated that the PPP and PML-N leaders would also face jail time if the government believed it could disqualify him in the foreign funding investigation.
Regarding the alleged contact between US Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman and Chief of Army Staff General Qamar Bajwa to expedite the IMF loan programme, Mr. Khan stated that this demonstrates that neither the IMF nor other foreign governments have confidence in the government, and that is “why the army chief took the responsibility.”
“If the army Chief was contacting the US and seeking help, it means that the country was getting weaker.”
He said, though, that any assistance from the US would come with conditions, and he expressed concern that “such conditions would jeopardise Pakistan’s national security.”
Mr. Khan claimed that the political instability that followed the overthrow of his government due to a conspiracy caused the economy to crash. He made this connection between the current economic crisis and political unrest.
“You can see that since then, things has gotten worse. According to him, “[all economic indices, including the] industry, tax collection, exports, and remittances have decreased,” and the only way to restore political stability was through free and fair elections.
.jpg)
.jpg)
