Imran Khan rejects Pak poll body's verdict in prohibited funding case, calls for protest

Islamabad: Former Pakistan prime minister Imran Khan on Thursday rejected the election commission's verdict in the prohibited funding case against his party, accusing the poll body's chief of conspiring "in cahoots" with the "imported govt" to try a "technical knockout" of the party.

His remarks came days after the former premier’s party received a show cause notice for receiving prohibited foreign funds.

Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party and the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) have been at loggerheads. Khan has been accusing Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Sikandar Sultan Raja of being biased.

Khan addressed his supporters through a video link and rejected the decision of the election commission, saying that it was not illegal when his party received the money in 2012.

The cricketer-turned-politician said that the law which prohibited taking funds from foreign companies was introduced in 2017” and hastened to add: “But our case is from 2012.” He said that his party had received the money in 2012 from two fundraising dinners that Arif Naqvi had organised.

Referring to the Financial Times report, Khan clarified that the businessman was charged with fraud six years later in 2018 and questioned how he could have known about that in 2012.

He also labelled rivals Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) as mafias.

“Across the world, political parties raise money by hosting dinners,” he said, explaining that the donations during those events were later given to the party.

Earlier in the day, Khan announced his party workers would protest outside the ECP office in Islamabad to press for Raja's resignation. He decided to change the venue after the police barricaded the roads leading to the place and the government vowed to stop the protestors.

"Today I am calling all our people to come out in peaceful public protest against CEC & ECP in F9 Park at 6 pm," he wrote in a Twitter message.

CEC & ECP in cahoots with Imported govt conspired to try a technical knockout against PTI after PMLN got routed in Punjab bye elections despite support of entire state machinery & ECP shenanigans. Now they are cowering in fear abt same happening to entire PDM in General Elections

— Imran Khan (@ImranKhanPTI) August 4, 2022

“CEC & ECP in cahoots with Imported govt conspired to try a technical knockout against PTI after PMLN got routed in Punjab bye-elections despite the support of entire state machinery & ECP shenanigans. Now they are cowering in fear abt same happening to the entire PDM in General Elections,” he wrote.

The protest call comes days after the ECP in the foreign funding case decided that Khan’s PTI received funding from prohibited sources and was involved in hiding the money it received from various sources.

Pakistan's election commission on Tuesday said that Khan's party received funds against the rules from 34 foreign nationals, including a businesswoman of Indian-origin, in a major setback to the former prime minister.

A three-member bench of the ECP issued a show cause notice to Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party for receiving prohibited funding from foreign nationals and foreign-based companies. After the protest call, scores of PTI supporters gathered at Islamabad’s F-9 park in the evening to protest against the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC).

They raised slogans against the electoral body and demanded the resignation of its official.

Separately, PTI lawmakers reached outside the ECP office in Islamabad and registered their protest.

They chanted “imported hukoomat namanzoor” (we reject imported government) while marching. They carried placards inscribed with demands for CEC Raja’s resignation, while some banners read “biased chief election commissioner unacceptable” and “ECP abettors of PML-N, PPP”.

They also submitted a memorandum against Raja for playing an “unconstitutional, undemocratic and biased” role as the CEC.

Separately, PTI lawmakers also gathered outside ECP offices in Karachi and Lahore. The Pakistan government has said it will stop the protesters.

Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah said on Wednesday that the government will not grant PTI supporters permission to enter the Red Zone and protest outside the ECP.

He said strict action would be taken in case of any misadventure from the PTI, but stated that staging a peaceful protest was everyone’s right.

Police, in anticipation of disturbance by protesters, sealed the Red Zone and placed containers at the entry points of Islamabad.

Personnel of law enforcement agencies including anti-riot force, paramilitary Rangers, Frontier Corps and police have been deployed around the Red Zone.

After barricading the main roads, the police proposed that the PTI should hold a protest in F-9 Park or H-9 ground.

The ECP's verdict came after The Financial Times newspaper recently published a story titled ‘The strange case of the cricket match that helped fund Khan’s political rise.'

The report states that fees were paid to Wootton Cricket Limited, which, despite the name, was, in fact, a Cayman Islands-incorporated company owned by Naqvi, the founder of Dubai-based Abraaj Group.