In the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) foreign funding case, the documents submitted in the United States and Pakistan different.
The ruling party and the opposition have made the foreign funding case a political one by ignoring its legal and ethical aspects and documentary proofs. Both have adopted their own points of view in this regard.
On the other hand, there are many documented facts with regard to fund-raising in the US. PTI-US chapter had submitted these documents in the form of affidavits and returns to the US Justice Department for time to time during last ten years.
The PTI US chapter had declared itself representative of a foreign political party and presented itself a sub-entity of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) in Pakistan. The chapter showed itself a legitimate body to raise funds in the US for its party in Pakistan and transfer the same to the party headquarters in Islamabad.
The PTI-US also submitted that these funds have been collected voluntarily and no commission or any other monetary benefit has been taken by the office-bearers of the PTI US chapter.
In the documents submitted in the US Justice Department with the signature of PTI Chairman Imran Khan, it has clearly been mentioned that the PTI chairman reserves the right to change the foreign agent designated to collect funds in the US. Therefore, the foreign funding agents have been changed more than five times between Feb 25, 2010 and 2020. All these agents transferred the funds they collected in the US without any monetary benefits.
According to the documents submitted to the US Justice Department, the PTI-US is a Limited Liability Corporation which has the mandate to collect funds for the party in Pakistan — to promote party manifesto and objectives in that country and to develop relationships with the US leadership.
The fund raising matter came to limelight in when the US Justice Department sought returns of the party funding after the US immigration officials at Toronto Airport interviewed PTI Chairman Imran Khan for two hours on October 26, 2012 as he was leaving Canada after attending a fundraiser in Toronto.