FIA registers case against PTI chief Imran Khan for 'prohibited funding'

• Case against Khan registered at FIA's banking circle police station. 
• FIA alleges PTI received $2100,000 from Abraaj Group.
• It claims PTI received more financing from Wotan Cricket Club.

ISLAMABAD: The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) Tuesday booked PTI Chairman Imran Khan in the prohibited funding case as the agency ramps up the investigation into the matter.

The first information report (FIR) registered against the former prime minister has been lodged at the FIA's banking circle police station.

In the FIR, the federal agency alleged that the Abraaj Group transferred $2100,000 to the PTI account in the branch of a bank situated at Jinnah Avenue in Islamabad.

Abraaj Group was a private equity firm, operating on six continents, which is currently in liquidation due to accusations of fraud.

In addition, the party received more financing from two bank accounts of Wotan Cricket Club, read the FIR.

The FIA said the manager of the private bank helped the agency in its probe into the questionable transactions.

Besides Khan, Sardar Azhar Tariq, Tariq Shafi, and Younis Aamir Kiani have also been nominated in the FIR. The FIA said the affidavit submitted to the ECP by businessman Arif Naqvi was also false.

The FIR also mentioned the manager of the same bank branch had also been nominated in the case. It added that there were 12 currency transaction reports and suspicious transaction reports that had to be reported by the bank officials to the concerned authorities, but they failed to do so.

The FIR alleged the branch's operations manager had also failed to report these illegal transactions to the concerned authorities. 

The FIR came just a day after the Islamabad High Court (IHC) issued a notice to the FIA in the prohibited funding case after PTI asked the court to stop the agency from probing the case.

The FIA has time and again summoned PTI leaders for questioning, however, not all of them have shown up.

On October 10, a district court in Lahore sent PTI leader Hamid Zaman on a 14-day judicial remand in the prohibited funding case.

The FIA had registered a case against Zaman, a trustee of the Insaf Trust, over prohibited party funding.

ECP finds prohibited funds

On August 22, 2022, the ECP, in a unanimous verdict, announced that the PTI received prohibited funding. The case was earlier referred to as the "foreign funding" case, but later the election commission accepted the PTI's plea to refer to it as the "prohibited funding" case.

The commission found that donations were taken from America, Australia, Canada and the UAE.

PTI received funds from 34 individuals and 351 businesses including companies, the ECP verdict stated.

Thirteen unknown accounts also came to light, said the commission in the verdict, adding that hiding accounts are a "violation" of Article 17 of the Constitution.

The funds were also in violation of Article 6 of the Political Parties Act.

Moreover, the ECP found that Khan submitted a false Nomination Form I and that the affidavit provided regarding party accounts was also not authentic.

Following ECP's declaration, the FIA launched a formal countrywide investigation into the utilisation of funds from “prohibited” sources by the PTI. 

A five-member monitoring team was constituted in this regard to supervise inquiries across Islamabad, Karachi, Peshawar, Lahore and Quetta. The team was headed by Muhammad Athar Waheed.