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Pakistan: Imran Khan booked for receiving prohibited funding from abroad

FIR says Arif Masood Naqvi, owner of the Wooton Cricket Limited, transferred ill-gotten money to a bank account registered under the name of the PTI

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Pakistan’s ousted prime minister Imran Khan and other senior leaders of his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party have been booked by the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) on Tuesday for allegedly receiving prohibited funding from abroad.

The case was filed by the state through FIA’s Corporate Banking Circle in Islamabad. According to the first information report (FIR), one Arif Masood Naqvi, who is the owner of the Wooton Cricket Limited, transferred “ill-gotten” money to a bank account registered under the name of the PTI, the Dawn newspaper reported.

“The purpose stated in the swift messages of the transactions is ‘agreed transfer’ to disguise the true nature, origin, location, movement and ownership of these funds,” the complaint said.

According to the FIR, the former ruling party leaders have violated the Foreign Exchange Act and they were declared as the beneficiaries of suspicious bank accounts.

The FIR further said that Naqvi was also facing trials in the UK and the US defrauding investors.

The complaint named Imran Khan, Sardar Azhar Tariq Khan, Saifullah Khan Nyazee, Syed Yunus Ali Raza, Aamer Mehmood Kiani, Tariq Rahim Sheikh, Tariq Shafi, Faisal Maqbool Shaikh, Hamid Zaman and Manzoor Ahmad Chaudhary as signatories/beneficiaries of the PTI account in question.

“PTI submitted an affidavit of Arif Masood Naqvi before the Election Commission of Pakistan stating therein that all the amounts collected in the accounts of WCL were submitted into PTI’s account in Pakistan. This 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 said.

Last month, the Election Commission in its verdict in the prohibited funding case against PTI stated that the party did indeed receive prohibited funding.

A three-member ECP bench headed by Chief Election Commissioner Sikander (CEC) Sultan Raja noted that the party “knowingly and willfully” received funding from Wootton Cricket Limited. The party was a “willing recipient” of prohibited money of $2,121,500, it said.

• Pakistan