Pakistan's Election Commission Rules Against Imran Khan's PTI in Banned Funding Case

The judgment in the eight-year old case has come at a time when the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) part is embroiled in a tussle with the poll conducting body, demanding resignation of Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Sikandar Sultan Raja. PTI chief Imran Khan has called a protest march outside the Election Commission's office.

A three-member bench of the Election Commission of Pakistan on Tuesday unanimously found former Prime Minister Imran Khan's party PTI to have benefitted from prohibited funds, and that they'd submitted a false declaration before the constitutional body.

The judgment was delivered in a case filed by Akbar Sher Babar, one of the founding members of PTI, in December 2014. He had blamed Imran Khan's party for the "mismanagement and misuse of party funds".

"The chairman of PTI for financial year 2008-2009 to 2012-13 has submitted form-1 which found to be grossly inaccurate on the basis of the financial statements obtained by this Commission from State Bank of Pakistan and other material available on record," the order read.

The electoral watchdog also said that the PTI received donations from 34 foreign nationals, including a US citizen of Indian-origin, and 351 foreign-based companies, in violation of national laws.

Speaking to the media after the verdict, a former federal minister and PTI member Fawad Chaudhry said most of the money was from overseas Pakistanis, who they consider "the backbone of Pakistan's economy" and will further rely on for funding.

He also defended the charge of hiding bank accounts, saying the supposedly undeclared accounts were not directly linked with the PTI chief.

The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) led ruling alliance recently lost power to Imran Khan's PTI in the country's most populous province Punjab, traditionally a stronghold. On Monday, Khan gave a call to his party workers to stage a protest outside the Election Commission of Pakistan on August 4, stating that country had lost confidence in the chief election commissioner.

"The commission should under no circumstances conduct the next general elections," he said.

The PTI chairman, who lost power in April during a no-confidence vote in the National Assembly, accused the election commission of promoting poll-rigging by removing electronic voting machines from the polling.