PTI richest political party with Rs225.3m assets

ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) Monday released the details of account statements of 82 political parties for the fiscal year 2018-19, with the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) turning out to be the richest party with Rs225.3 million, followed by PPP-Parliamentarians with Rs160 million.

Out of 125 political parties registered with the Commission, 82 parties filed their consolidated statements of accounts with the procedure prescribed in Rule 159 of the election Rules, 2017, which makes mandatory on any registered party to comply with the related rules.

Section 210 of the Election Act, 2017 provides that a political party will submit to the Commission within 60 days from the close of a financial year, a consolidated statement of its accounts audited by a chartered accountant on form-D containing annual income and expenses, sources of its funds and assets and liabilities.

The PTI owns assets worth up to Rs225.3 million whereas its expenditures stood at over Rs508 million during 2018-19. This includes Rs110 million received from the overseas Pakistanis in the US, the UK, Australia and Canada. The party says funding does not include anything from the prohibited sources.

Similarly, the Pakistan People’s Party Parliamentarians (PPPP) owns a bank balance of Rs160 million, which also includes Rs13.5 million of party funds. The values of assets possessed by the party is worth over Rs7 million.

The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML) showed in its documents that its expenditures remained higher than the income generated during the year, as the party shared assets worth over Rs80 million.

The Awami Muslim League of Federal Minister Sh. Rashid Ahmad is among the poorest political parties with Rs2.5 lakhs in banks. The Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) has Rs49.9 million assets, while the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) has Rs41.9 million assets.