Imran, 10 others booked over prohibited funding

ISLAMABAD: The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) has registered a case against Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf chief Imran Khan and 10 others over accusations of receiving prohibited funding. The case has been registered by the FIA Corporate Banking Circle.

According to the FIR, the accused, including former premier Imran Khan, violated the Foreign Exchange Act and all of the nominated persons were beneficiaries of a private bank account. The nominated persons included Sardar Azhar, Tariq Saifullah Niazi, Syed Younus, Aamer Mehmood Kiani, Tariq Shaikh and Tariq Shafi whereas the manager of the private bank was also nominated in the FIR.

According to the FIA, the PTI had a private bank account titled ‘Naya Pakistan’ whereas the bank manager illegally permitted the party to operate the account. It said about $2.1 million had been deposited by the Abraaj Group whereas the PTI had submitted Arif Naqvi’s affidavit to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) that the company deposited a huge sum of money to the political party’s bank account.

The FIA said the affidavit was false and counterfeit. The political party had also received funds from the Wootton Cricket and the head of a private bank facilitated the accused by providing suspicious records.