Pakistan Gov't Considers Placing Imran Khan on Exit Control List Amid Election Funding Row

On Tuesday, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) ruled that former PM Imran Khan's party Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) received funds from foreign countries. Receiving foreign funds is prohibited under the country's election laws.

The Pakistan government is considering putting former Prime Minister Imran Khan and the top leaders of his party PTI on the Exit Control List (ECL), the South Asian nation's media outlet The Express Tribune reported on Wednesday.

According to the publication, other than the former cricket captain of Pakistan, ex-governors from the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Sindh provinces, Shah Farman, and Imran Ismail respectively are also set to be placed on the ECL.

The news of the move to put Khan and other PTI politicians on the ECL list came after the Pakistan Election Commission's judgment against PTI on Tuesday.

Notably, the prohibited funding case was filed by one of the founders of the PTI by the name of Akbar Sher Babar in 2014. He had accused the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf of misappropriation 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 the State Bank of Pakistan and other material available on record," the ECP report stated.

The poll body also claimed that PTI benefitted from donations received from 34 overseas residents and 351 companies based outside Pakistan, in gross violation of the laws of the land.

Immediately after the ECP verdict, Khan was slammed by members of the ruling coalition, including PM Shehbaz Sharif, who dubbed him a "certified liar".

On the other hand, PML-N Vice President Maryam Nawaz labeled Khan as a "foreign agent" who was playing with Pakistan's interests.

"This foreign agent was launched to stop CPEC and the progress of Pakistan. This man who used to give sermons on liberating the nation from slavery, in fact, turned out to be a slave of foreign powers. He took money from these foreign powers to create anarchy in Pakistan," Nawaz said on Twitter.

"The anti-Nawaz Sharif narrative was based on blatant lies and conspiracies but IK is guilty of startling, mind-boggling wrongdoings the evidence of which is irrefutable," she added.

Meanwhile, the PTI has defended itself amid the rising criticism of its sources of funding, with party leader Fawad Chaudhary declaring that most of the money it received was donated by the Pakistani diaspora abroad.

He even declared that overseas Pakistanis were the "backbone of the country's economy" and PTI will continue to seek funds from such people.