After former Pakistan National Assembly Speaker Asad Qaiser, 10 more Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leaders have been summoned by Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) in connection to the probe linked to PTI’s prohibited funding case.
FIA has summoned ex-Sindh governor Imran Ismail, Seema Zia, Mian Mahmood-ur-Rashid and others for interrogation, Ary News reported. On Saturday, the agency summoned Qaser to record his statement on August 11 while Imran Ismail and Seema Zia have been asked to appear before the agency on August 12 and 15 respectively.
Qaiser, in a statement, claimed that he hasn’t received any summon notice. “Have not done anything illegal, do not have anything to worry about,” he added.
The probe agency had sent a notice to Qaiser and it said that as per the verdict on Akbar Babar’s case, the former speaker has two bank accounts and is connected with the functioning of those accounts.
FIA has also identified four employees of Imran Khan’s party’s secretariat, whose salaries and personal accounts were used for receiving foreign funds.
Meanwhile, the probe agency has identified four employees – Muhammad Arshad, Tahir Iqbal, Muhammad Rafique, and Nauman Afza – of the PTI secretariat, whose personal and salary accounts were used for receiving foreign funding.
The PTI employees said that the money that was deposited in their accounts was given to PTI’s finance manager. The employees used to hand over blank cheques to the finance manager, according to reports.
FIA probes foreign funding case
The FIA probe comes days after the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECA) ruled that the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf received prohibited funding in the case pending since 2014, Geo News reported.
Akbar Babar, the person who exposed the inflow of foreign funds, approached the FIA on Wednesday to initiate an investigation against the PTI. He had alleged that Rs 11.104 million was received in accounts of PTI employees which was beyond their source of income.
Earlier this week, the Pakistan government also decided to file a disqualification reference against PTI supremo Imran Khan after the ECA’s verdict.