A UK-based Pakistani businessman, who’s going through fees of siphoning funds within the US, offered international funding to former Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan’s social gathering by organising non-public cricket matches, the Financial Times has reported. The every day reported that Khan’s social gathering, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, additionally obtained funding from a minister within the UAE who’s a member of the royal household.
The Pakistani businessman, Arif Naqvi, 62, founding father of Dubai-based Abraaj Group, was indicted within the US in 2019 on fees of siphoning funds from the Gates Foundation and different buyers, meant for constructing hospitals throughout Asia and Africa. Arrested from London’s Heathrow Airport in April 2019, Naqvi is reported to be “effectively in house arrest”. He faces 291 years in jail, if discovered responsible of the US fees. His attraction towards extradition to the US is predicted to conclude later this 12 months.
The revelations will be damaging for Khan, who portrays himself as an anti-corruption crusader towards the established political events run by households in Pakistan. The matter is being investigated by Pakistan’s Election Commission.
According to the report, Naqvi presided over the “Wootton T20 Cup” from 2010 to 2012 – the first occasion was a cricket match between teams with invented names – that was used to gather between 2,000 kilos and a couple of,500 kilos from visitors for unspecified “philanthropic causes”.
“It is the type of charity fundraiser repeated up and down the UK every summer. What makes it unusual is that the ultimate benefactor was a political party in Pakistan. The fees were paid to Wootton Cricket Ltd, which, despite the name, was a Cayman Islands-incorporated company owned by Naqvi, and the money was being used to bankroll Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, Khan’s political party,” the Financial Times report mentioned.
“Pakistan forbids foreign nationals and companies from funding political parties, but Abraaj emails and internal documents seen by the Financial Times, including a bank statement covering the period between February 28 and May 30, 2013 for a Wootton Cricket account in the UAE, show that both companies and foreign nationals as well as citizens of Pakistan sent millions of dollars to Wootton Cricket — before money was transferred from the account to Pakistan for the PTI,” the report mentioned.
Khan, a World Cup-winning captain, introduced himself forward of the 2013 normal elections in Pakistan as an anti-corruption crusader and his social gathering grew to become the third largest within the National Assembly..
The Pakistan Election Commission has been probing the funding of PTI for a number of years. According to the report, the investigation adopted a criticism filed by Akbar S Babar, who helped set up the PTI, in December 2014.
The Financial Times report mentioned that in January, the Pakistan Election Commission’s scrutiny committee issued a damning report by which it mentioned the PTI obtained funding from international nationals and firms and accused it of under-reporting funds and concealing dozens of financial institution accounts.
“Wootton Cricket was named in the report, but Naqvi wasn’t identified as its owner… Wootton Cricket’s bank statement shows it received USD 1.3mn on March 14, 2013 from Abraaj Investment Management Ltd, the fund management unit of Naqvi’s private equity firm, boosting the account’s previous balance of USD 5,431. Later the same day, USD 1.3mn was transferred from the account directly to a PTI bank account in Pakistan. Abraaj expensed the cost to a holding company through which it controlled K-Electric, the power provider to Karachi, Pakistan’s largest city,” the report mentioned.
An further $2mn flowed into the Wootton Cricket account in April 2013 from Sheikh Nahyan bin Mubarak al-Nahyan, a member of Abu Dhabi’s royal family, minister and chair of Pakistan’s Bank Alfalah, the report mentioned.
The report mentioned that Imran Khan visited Wootton Place in 2002. In a written response to questions from the British newspaper, the previous cricketer mentioned he had gone for “a fundraising event which was attended by many PTI supporters”. Khan mentioned that neither he nor his social gathering was conscious of Abraaj offering USD 1.3mn by Wootton Cricket.
“Arif Naqvi has given a statement which was filed before the Election Commission also, not denied by anyone, that the money came from donations during a cricket match and the money as collected by him was sent through his company Wootton Cricket,” Khan wrote. He mentioned he was awaiting the report of the Election Commission’s investigation. “It will not be appropriate to prejudge PTI,” he mentioned.
