PTI received $2.2m and Rs1.9m from expats in UAE

ISLAMABAD: The Scrutiny Committee of the Election Commission of Pakistan has revealed on page-88 of its report that the PTI also received money from Dubai to the tune of $2.206 million and Rs 1,910,649 under the head of remittances from the UAE in 2012-13.

The committee mentions on the same page the details of these amounts remitted by two limited liability companies and individuals, who by naming protocol appear to be of Pakistani origin, to PTI accounts being maintained with the UBL. The Wootton Cricket Limited Dubai gave $212,1500, the Bristol Engineering Services FZ LLC $49,965, Mumtaz Ahmad Muslim $24,979, Irfan Mustafa Rs1,910,649 leadership.

On April 15, 2018, he met Imran Khan at his Banigala residence. After this meeting, Imran Khan decided to appoint him his special adviser. On April 26, 2018, the PTI chief signed a notification to appoint Mumtaz Muslim as a special adviser to the chairman on special projects on April 26, 2018. Mumtaz’s name also appeared in the media as a PTI leader when the FIA released a list of Pakistanis who own properties in the UAE.

Recently, the PTI social networking website posted a tweet about signing an agreement between the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government and his hotel chain for setting up a luxury hotel in scenic Nathiagali. Interestingly, before the agreement was signed Mumtaz Muslim held a meeting with Chief Minister Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Mahmood Khan, on September 16, 2021. Almost a month later, the provincial government awarded the contract to Mumtaz Muslim and signed the agreement with his company on October 20, 2021.

A hotel business related website on the occasion of signing of the agreement for establishing a luxury hotel in Nathiagali quoted Mumtaz Muslim as owner and investor of the hotel: Apart from the hotel business, Mumtaz Muslim has a well-established security related company based in the UAE. The company had provided manpower to guard the American forces combating in Iraq and later in Afghanistan to some extent.

The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) recently released the Pandora Papers containing around 12 million confidential files from 14 offshore services firms. One of the leaked files contain Mumtaz Ahmed Muslim’s name who owns an offshore company Dreshak Security Solutions Inc.

The Pandora Papers documents reveal that on August 06, 2006, Mumtaz Ahmed Muslim incorporated an offshore company Dreshak Security Solutions Inc. in the British Virgin Islands (BVI) jurisdiction. As per the documents, Mumtaz Ahmed Muslim and Imtiaz Ahmed Muslim are the officers and shareholders of the company. Imtiaz Ahmed Muslim is also the managing director of Dreshak Security Solutions Inc.

According to Dreshak Security’s official website, the company was established to execute a multi-million dollar running contract, the security division was founded soon after the need for specialised non-combat security forces was felt in Iraq and Afghanistan. “We screened, recruited and deployed over 14,800 security guards from Uganda, Macedonia and Bosnia to Iraq to provide security to 36 US bases in Iraq.”

Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Fawad Chaudhry, while talking to The News, said he has no information about Mumtaz Muslim’s security company. About the hotel contract, he said Mumtaz Muslim won it in an open bidding.

When asked about Mumtaz Muslim’s meeting with Chief Minister KP a month prior to the contract awarding, he said as far as he knows, the KP government did not award the contract but the army did. Talking about his affiliation with Imran Khan, the information minister said Mumtaz Muslim is a staunch party supporter and a former party member.