PTI foreign funding: Receipts given, scrutiny panel gave clean chit, says Imran

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan on Monday said that the allegation of receiving prohibited funds from foreign sources against Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) had proven wrong.

He expressed these views while chairing a session of government spokespersons in which the participants reviewed the developments related to the Murree tragedy, foreign funding case, opposition’s long march and prevailing economic situation.

Minister for Information and Broadcasting Fawad Chaudhry and Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting Farrukh Habib apprised the session’s participants of the latest developments in the foreign funding case.

Imran Khan said that the allegations of receiving prohibited foreign funding had proven wrong against the PTI. “We have provided all the receipts to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) and the scrutiny committee gave us a clean chit. Now all other parties would have to provide their receipts,” he mentioned.

On the occasion, the participants said that in the coming days, Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PMLN) and Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) would have to answer on their sources of foreign funding.

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) lawmaker Sadaqat Ali Abbasi and Punjab government spokesperson Hasaan Khawar briefed on administrative matters prior to and after the Murree tragedy to the premier.

PM Khan said that the federal government faced some major issues after coming into power as the national reserves were near bankruptcy and needed timely steps. He added that the coronavirus pandemic had also created a difficult situation and later post-COVID inflation issue hit the nation.

He said that it was also challenging to tackle the development in Afghanistan. He said that the PTI government had successfully dealt with the bankruptcy and COVID pandemic situation. Imran Khan said that the challenges are controlling the inflation and ongoing humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Imran Khan questioned the persistent silence of Narendra Modi government on the call by Hindutva summit for genocide of minorities in India and asked whether the BJP government supported the call.

In messages on his Twitter account, PM Imran wrote, “The continuing silence of Modi government on the call at an extremist Hindutva summit in December for genocide of minorities in India, especially the 200 million Muslim community, begs the question whether the BJP government supports this call. It is high time international community should take note and act”.

Under the extremist ideology of the BJP, the Modi government, he wrote, all religious minorities in India have been targeted with impunity by Hindutva groups. The extremist agenda of the Modi government is a recall and present threat to peace in the region.

Later, in a separate tweet, the prime minister wrote about the economy and confidence of private sector in it. He wrote, “Private sector credit off-take of Rs1,138 billion in the calendar year 2021, is the highest in last 10 years. It shows increasing private sector confidence and investment and a strong growth momentum in the economy.”

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Imran Khan directed all the party leaders to take effective steps to strengthen the party's organisational structure across the country.

He also ordered for mobilising the workers effectively to ensure success in the coming local government elections in different provinces/ regions. He was presiding over a party leaders’ meeting here, which was attended by PTI Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa President and Defence Minister Pervez Khattak, PTI Punjab President and Education Minister Shafqat Mahmood, PTI South Punjab President and Minister for Industries and Production Makhdoom Khusro Bakhtiar, PTI Sindh President and Minister for Maritime Affairs Syed Ali Haider Zaidi, President of PTI Balochistan and Deputy Speaker National Assembly Muhammad Qasim Khan Suri and Additional General Secretary of PTI Amir Mahmood Kiani.

Minister for Planning and General Secretary of PTI Asad Umar was also present. The meeting discussed issues related to strengthening and activating the party's organisational structure across the country.

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