MM News

LONDON: Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N) supreme leader Nawaz Sharif has alleged that Prime Minister Imran Khan was using delaying tactics and ignoring the directions of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) in the foreign funding case.

In a video message posted on his Twitter account on Saturday, Nawaz said there was no doubt PM Imran was a criminal, adding that he was now shifting the blame on the agents managing two US companies registered on the latter’s orders in the PTI foreign funding case.

“Why is the ECP not taking action when the evidence is clear-cut?” he questioned, claiming that the nation is protesting against the ECP’s negligence in fulfilling its Constitutional duties”.

Nawaz warned and said the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) will protest in front of the ECP office in the capital on Jan 19, urging party workers and others to join the protest to save the country from injustice.

“The clear and straightforward case had been pending with the ECP for the past six years. A decision had not been taken because it concerned Imran Khan and the PTI instead of other political parties, Nawaz added.

Recounting the events leading up to his ouster in 2017, the PML-N supremo said he was treated and how the foreign funding case was being treated.“Everyone must remember the haste in which issues proceeded to oust him, an elected PM.

The judge of the Supreme Court formulated a JIT via Whatsapp which included representatives from the armed forces intelligence and other agencies. “And then the process in which the JIT was told to submit a report in 60 days. Then the haste with which the finding was issued in the Panama case, a prime minister was dismissed,” he added.

The accountability court was also ordered to issue a decision in six months while the tenure of judge Mohammad Bashir, who convicted the Sharif family in Avenfield properties references, was also extended, he said.

Drawing a comparison with the PTI’s foreign funding case, Nawaz said that a case was filed in 2014 by a founding member of the party, adding that there had been 70 hearings so far.

“Imran Khan, the man wearing the medal and shouting the slogan of Sadiq and Ameen, who did not tire when saying that accountability should begin with him, has now become the biggest obstacle for justice.” The prime minister was using delaying tactics and ignoring the directions of the ECP, Nawaz alleged.

He said in March 2018, the ECP had constituted a scrutiny team and directed that a report be submitted in one month. About two-and-a-half years later, there is still no report, Nawaz added.

“Later, Khan has accepted that things have gone awry when it comes to foreign funding. But he has put the responsibility of this on his agents and said that they must have done this,” the PML-N supremo said, alluding to the PTI’s response to the ECP.

He claimed, “There are two companies registered in the US under Imran Khan’s directives and were running under his eye.” The State Bank of Pakistan had given the ECP information about 23 accounts, 15 of which the premier hid and did not include in the report given to the commission, Nawaz added.

“He did not disclose the total amount, the source, and did not give a money trail or receipts,” Nawaz claimed, adding that the people wanted to know how the money was assembled and where it went.

“If there is no fraud, then why was it concealed? Do these suspicious accounts not come under the offense of money laundering? Where is the money trail? And why is the information not being given to the relevant authorities?” he questioned.

Nawaz’s statement comes days after the PTI submitted a written reply to a questionnaire given by the ECP scrutiny committee in which it claimed that if any funds were collected illegally through the two US companies registered on Imran Khan’s written instructions, the responsibility lies with their agents managing the two LLCs.