ISLAMABAD: Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting Farrukh Habib on Tuesday appealed to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to start early hearing of foreign funding case of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz and Pakistan People’s Party.
“We have once again requested the Election Commission in writing that the PML-N and PPP foreign funding case should be heard as soon as possible,” said the Minister of State.
The scrutiny committee should be activated immediately so that the committee completes its report, Farrukh Habib said. He said that Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf was the first political party that launched political fundraising in Pakistan.
Terming overseas Pakistanis as assets of the nation, he said that they were sending $30 billion remittances annually, which stood at $18 billion during the PML-N era.
He said 9 million overseas Pakistanis, have full confidence in Imran Khan and PTI’s paid members pay the membership fee on annual basis.
The minister said there was propaganda against PTI that it has received illegal foreign funding which was totally baseless Pointing towards the people standing around him, he said they were the people who gave foreign funds to the party.
“Anyone including Maryam Safdar, Bilawal Zardari or Shabhaz Sharif want to meet these persons, they should come here”, he said. The minister said that the cat had come out of the bag and it was proved that Akbar S. Babar was receiving funds from the PML-N.
He said that today, Maryam Safdar herself has come to the Election Commission in connection with the case of Akbar S. Babar. He challenged that Maryam Safdar did not even have a record of foreign funding of her party.
He asked Maryam to inform the source of Rs 650 million received by the PML-N and also she should disclose who had been running accounts of dead people till 2017. No meeting on an audit of PPP and PML-N accounts for the last three months, everyone should be treated equally.
PTI gave all records to the scrutiny committee and fully cooperated with the panel. PPP should tell about its 12 secret accounts, Farrukh Habib. He said that Fazlur Rehman who has been trying to dictate the institutions had taken funds from Libya.
“Why PPP paid to US lobbyist Marc Siegel, and why the PML-N and PPP are registered as limited companies in UK and US,” Farrukh Habib asked”.
He asked Maryam Safdar, Fazlur Rehman and Asif Zardari to bring details of their party accounts and submit them to the panel. PTI leader from Germany Tariq Javed said that allegation of foreign funding against the party was baseless. He said that every member of PTI living in Europe paid 36 euros as an annual fee.
