Probe reveals Imran withdrew Rs8m from PTI account

ISLAMABAD: Fifty-two transactions from five bank accounts of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) should have been flagged as suspicious, a Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) probe said. These include two large withdrawals made by party Chairman Imran Khan amounting to Rs8 million from a PTI account in March 2013.

According to sources close to the investigation, the banks should have generated suspicious transaction reports (STRs) on 52 transactions, made by accounts associated with the PTI. These transactions include two withdrawals amounting to Rs8 million, made by former premier Imran Khan himself, both from PTI’s HBL Civic Centre, Islamabad account in March 2013. Khan used his own national identity card to validate the transactions.

The probe also revealed names of nine individuals who withdrew large amounts of cash from party accounts. Their names and national ID card numbers are being verified from the relevant banks.

The probe also discovered three remittances were traced to the PTI accounts. Two of those were from Nasir Aziz and Romita Shetty, amounting to US$25,000 and US$2,500, respectively, while a third remittance of US$2,480, was not detected by the ECP, from DIMAIO Ahmad Capital LLC in New York, USA.

The PTI also opened a merchant account using the commercial name Naya Pakistan, which reported transactions of more than Rs21 million between April and November 2013.

The probe has revealed that money was sent from an account named Wootton Cricket, a Cayman Islands registered offshore firm, owned by Arif Naqvi of the Abraaj Group, to The Insaf Trust account, opened by PTI Chairman Imran Khan’s close friend, Tariq Shafi, in his capacity as the first chairman of the trust. Shafi also received $575,000 in one of his personal accounts and transferred it to a declared account of the PTI.

On Friday last week, Shafi was interviewed by the FIA investigation team in Lahore. Shafi told the investigating officers that he did not know Arif Naqvi and was not aware of transfers to his personal accounts or accounts of the Insaf Trust. Sources close to these developments say Shafi was questioned for a long time about the Insaf Trust, but he maintained that the trust and PTI had no connection.