Foreign Funding case: PPP, PML-N not submitting record, says PTI

ISLAMABAD: Just a day ahead of the Pakistan Democratic Movement’s planned protest outside the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) Secretariat here, the ECP Scrutiny Committee has summoned PML-N and PPP leaders in the foreign funding case.

In a related development, a PTI lawmaker challenged PPP and PML-N leaders Bilawal Bhutto Zardari and Maryam Nawaz to submit records of their party funding amid charges of receiving funds from prohibited sources.

As the mainstream opposition parties demand early judgment in the PTI foreign funding case, they have been issued notices, asking them to appear before the scrutiny committee on January 18, while the PDM has announced a protest on January 19. On its part, the PTI submitted a new application to the chief election commissioner, seeking day-to-day hearing of foreign funding cases against the two parties.

After submitting the application for speeding up the scrutiny process, PTI MNA Farrukh Habib challenged PML-N Vice President Maryam Nawaz and PPP Chairman Bilawal to submit the record sought by the scrutiny committee, saying the PDM’ protest plan is meant to pressurize the ECP and get an ‘NRO’ in prohibited funding cases.

He recalled that the petitions against these two parties were filed back in 2017, however, no decision hitherto could be taken just because of non-cooperation of the parties. He continued that the two parties are reluctant to submit records since the party accounts have been used for money laundering.

The PTI legislator asked the PML-N leadership to explain from where amounts ranging between Rs 50 million and Rs 150 million came into their accounts, adding: “Their track record shows they have been getting funds from interest groups and it had emerged in the TT case against Shahbaz Sharif and Hamza Shahbaz that multi-million rupees have been deposited in their accounts by a builder from Gujrat and other contractors.”

He recalled that Nawaz Sharif was said to have received funds from the then Al-Qaeda chief Osama Bin Laden to topple the Benazir Bhutto government. As regards the PPP, he charged that it was the only party whose head Asif Ali Zardari and his late spouse had hired lobbyists in individual capacity to get an ‘NRO’. Then he explained Mark Siegel had been paid $340000 between 1999 and 2008. He said he had a signed copy of Asif Ali Zardari’s agreement with Mark Siegel in this connection. Likewise, a heavy amount, he pointed out, was paid to Mark Siegel and associates from the national exchequer soon after the PPP came into power. He said in the name of lobbying for Pakistan, they had hired the services of this person to protect their own interests. He referred to a book authored by former US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice titled “Owner of the World” in which she writes that she helped Benazir Bhutto in striking an NRO deal with General Pervez Musharraf.

Meanwhile, PTI Central Information Secretary Ahmad Jawad put aside the reported impression of the PTI’s departure from its earlier stance on foreign funding and he noted that the fact remains that PTI had incorporated two LLC in the USA in compliance with the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) USA which provides definitions of “Foreign Principal” under Section 6.11 of FARA which provides that “any person who engages within the USA in political activities for or in the interest of such Foreign Principal…” has to nominate an agent under FARA.

In this context, the PTI, in reply to a question raised by the ECP Scrutiny Committee, had merely elaborated the duties and responsibilities of a foreign principal and its nominated agents, collecting the membership fee and donations from overseas Pakistanis holding NICOPs.

He explained: “In continuation of the same and to elaborate the legal proposition, the PTI legal team had mentioned that if some irregularity is committed by its agents in violation of the instructions given by the PTI or in deviation of any legal requirements of FARA, the agent could be held responsible. This has always been the PTI position.”

The PTI spokesman said that in conclusion of the answer to the question, the PTI had clearly mentioned that the agents of PTI USA LLC have provided a duly notarized and authenticated list along with sworn affidavits by the agents, stating that they have adhered to the PTI Fund Raising Policy. Ahmad Jawad noted that the said remitted accounts were duly documented and totally reconciled in the PTI’s external audit reports. The reconciled and duly notarized reports have already been submitted before the Supreme Court of Pakistan, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) and the Scrutiny Committee of ECP.

He concluded that this impression that the PTI had taken departure from its actual stance and shifted responsibilities of committing illegalities to its agents is totally misleading and distortion of facts, manipulated by the complainant of alleged prohibited funds, which was a malicious act just to cause prejudice in the minds of people against the PTI.