Imran Khan's party allowed paid employees to receive funds, reveals document

In a watershed development in foreign funding case on Tuesday, a documented list revealed that Imran Khan's party Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) employees were authorised to receive party donations from within and outside Pakistan, reported Dawn.

The document, available with Dawn, revealed the names of employees. They included reportedly PTI's telephone operator (Tahir Iqbal), computer operator (Muhammad Nauman Afzal), accountant (Mohammad Arshad) and PTI's office helper (Mohammad Rafiq).

The decision to allow the PTI employees to collect the funds was taken at a meeting held on July 1, 2011. It was attended by Saifullah Niazi, the incumbent chief orgser and an aspirant of a PTI Senate ticket; Aamer Mahmud Ki, present secretary-general and former health minister who was removed from the federal cabinet; Dr Humayun Mohmand, who was recently appointed chairman of the board of directors of PIMS; Sardar Azhar Tariq Khan, the party's former finance secretary and now Pakistan's Ambassador to Kyrgyzstan; Colonel Yunus Ali Raza, and Tariq R Sheikh, reported Dawn.

The foreign funding case pertains to Akbar S Babar's allegations that foreign donations were illegally received in the front accounts of PTI employees through Hundi, particularly from the Middle East, and siphoned off by the senior party leadership through cheques with no trace or record. Babar was the founding member of PTI.

He has repeatedly asked the scrutiny committee of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to investigate the private bank accounts of PTI employees which were illegally used as a front to collect donations.

The committee continues to keep the PTI records and bank statements secret despite ECP orders. The records include 23 PTI bank accounts provided to the ECP by scheduled banks on the instructions of the State Bank of Pakistan, reported Dawn.

The scrutiny committee will meet on Tuesday (today) to decide whether to keep the PTI documents secret or not. The ECP has passed more than one order against the secrecy of the PTI record.

( With inputs from ANI )