Pakistan’s PML-N accuses Imran Khan of misappropriating ‘ ₹310 mn foreign funds’

Former Pakistan prime minister Imran Khan – ousted earlier this month after a dramatic no-trust vote – has since been under the scanner over allegations of financial impropriety, including charges by the ruling Pakistan Muslim League (N) of the ‘theft’ of over 310 million Pak rupees in domestic and foreign funds from his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party.

The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) will hear the case every day starting from Tuesday, local media reports were cited by news agency ANI. This comes after the Islamabad High Court directed the ECP to decide on the case within a month; the court said it was important to establish if PTI had recevied funds from prohibited sources.

New PM Shehbaz Sharif’s PML(N) has asserted Imran Khan will face a sentence.

The accusation comes after irregularities were found in PTI’s funding; according to news agency ANI, the case – filed by a founding member – has been pending since November 2014.

On January 4 an ECP scrutiny committee report indicated Khan’s party had concealed several accounts from the electoral body between 2008 and 2013, The Express Tribune reported.

The report had further disclosed PTI received $44,000 from 88 foreign donors in this time.

The accounts have been mentioned in a report by the State Bank of Pakistan, and the scrutiny committee had included its analysis of bank accounts in the report, the Tribune said.

PML-N spokesperson Marriyum Aurangzeb was quoted by The Express Tribune as saying: “An amount of $7 million pertaining to foreign funding wasn’t declared… an amount of over (Pak rupees) 20 million was transferred to personal accounts.”

“The man sitting on the premier’s chair was lying so that no one could question his performance,” she was quoted as declaring.

This is not the first time Marriyum has accused Khan in this case. She has frequenlty called him the ‘biggest thief’ and his party the ‘biggest fraud in Pakistan’s history’.

Meanwhile, the PML-N also slammed Khan over his intention to send a reference against the Chief Election Commissioner and called it a move to evade the verdict in this case.