Monitoring Desk: The PTI’s recent fund raising campaign is sending messages to his opponents that it is not shy to unfold its foreign networking but at the same time it may create confusions for its silent supporters who are raising questions why does foreigners always fund for PTI?
PTI claims it raised $120,000 from overseas donations, $144,177 from local donations during hours-long fundraising.
Even before this, the founder PTI had been collecting money from overseas Pakistanis and Pakistani people through one or the other means, but till now no clear evidence of the use of the money collected by the party has been presented. PTI had a huge campaign after floods and claimed the money was spent for rehabilitation of floods victims. However, no documentation has ever come on surface that to whom this money was given and where it had been spent.
In 2014, PTI’s own leader, Akbar S. Babar, filed a case against founder Chairman of PTI alleging that the money collected for the party was used for illegal purposes, after which Akbar S. Babar was sacked by the party. He submitted case in Election Commission that is known as Foreign Funding Case that he won against the PTI founding Chairman. According to media reports, the charity worth $ 3 million collected in the name of Shaukat Khanum Memorial Hospital was invested in private housing projects from Shaukat Khanum Memorial Trust (SKMT) in 2014.
The Election Commission of Pakistan has repeatedly made it clear that the founding Chairman of PTI received prohibited funding from 34 foreign nationals including Indian citizens. Now PTI through a website “namanzoor.com” is collecting funds for sending foreign journalists and Election Observers to Pakistan to monitor forthcoming General Elections 2024. This fund collection is mostly being operated by Atif Khan, a PTI official in Dallas, Texas who through Twitter space sent a message that PTI has hired an American firm that would help the party to spread its message to foreign media outlets.
According to PTI circles, PTI’s North American and European sectors would send 500 journalists and Election Observers to Pakistan to observe forthcoming General Elections 2024 and the list of such delegates has already been finalized.
