ISLAMABAD: The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) has summoned former prime minister Imran Khan in a prohibited funding case against his party for allegedly submitting false affidavits to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP).

Sources in the FIA said the agency had asked the PTI chairman to appear before an investigation team at its Karachi office on Oct 31 (tomorrow). Mr Khan is currently leading a long march, which began from Lahore on Friday and is on its way to Islamabad.

The agency has also obtained arrest warrants of several suspects, including PTI leaders Saifullah Nyazee and Amir Kayani.

On Oct 5, the FIA registered two FIRs in Lahore and Karachi against the party leadership. Both reports carried the same charges, i.e. sections 420 and 109 of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC).

Arrest warrants out for party leaders Saifullah Nyazee, Amir Kayani, others

The FIR lodged in Lahore accused Arif Naqvi, Tariq Shafi, Zaman Khan, Manzoor Ahmed Chaudhry, Mubashir Ahmed, the management of Habib Bank Limited and the PTI leadership of fraud.

The one registered in Karachi pointed out that Mr Naqvi was a major beneficiary of foreign funding and received foreign telegraphic transfers (FTTs) from Abraaj Investment Management Limited, Aman Foundation, Gray Mackenzie Holdings, Silver Line Holdings, and Strelizia ATF Aman.

Sources said Mr Khan had been summoned after an investigation team found that Mr Shafi transferred Rs562 million from Karachi to the United Bank Limited’s (UBL) Jinnah Avenue branch in Islamabad in a PTI account to which Mr Khan was a signatory.

In an FIR registered earlier this month by the FIA’s Commercial Bank Circle in Islamabad, the investigation agency said: “The PTI submitted an affidavit of [Abraaj founder] Arif Masood Naqvi before the Election Commission of Pakistan stating therein that all the amounts collected in the accounts of WCL (Wootton Cricket Limited) were submitted into PTI’s account in Pakistan … [the] affidavit has been proved to be false/forged as two more transactions were also made from WCL to two different accounts in Pakistan in May 2013.”

The FIR also mentioned the UBL for its alleged failure to report suspicious transactions to authorities.

“Chaudhary Shahid Bashir, the operations manager of UBL’s Jinnah Avenue branch in Islamabad, facilitated these suspicious/illegal transactions by not reporting the aforesaid illegalities to the authorities concerned and also allowed internet merchant acquiring agreement changing the title of the account to Naya Pakistan,” it added.

The FIR lodged in Islamabad contained sections 420, 468, 471, 477-A, and 109 of the PPC, read with sections 5 and 23 of the Foreign Exchange Regulation Act of 1947.

According to the FIR, the Abraaj owner transferred over $2.12 million of his “ill-gotten” money to a PTI bank account, whose signatories included Imran Khan and Saifullah Nyazee, among other party leaders.

Sources said the FIA also obtained arrest warrants for Mr Nyazee, Amir Kayani and four others in that FIR.

Published in Dawn, October 30th, 2022