ISLAMABAD: Leaders of former prime minister Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) said on Tuesday a live telethon arranged by the party to raise funds for victims of devastating rains and floods in Pakistan had received pledges amounting to over Rs5 billion.
Pakistan declared a national emergency last week as deadly floods have killed 1,136 people and rendered more than 30 million homeless since monsoon rains began this year in mid-June.
On Monday evening, the PTI arranged a live telethon to collect funds for flood victims.
“On the call of the Chairman @ImranKhanPTI, in just a few hours, the great nation of Pakistan allocated more than 500 crore rupees for the relief of the flood victims. This is the passion of this nation and faith in the honesty and trustworthiness of Imran Khan,” Shah Mahmood Qureshi, a close Khan aide and former foreign minister in his cabinet, said on Twitter.
The party’s official political handle also announced that Rs5 billion had been pledged by Khan supporters “in three hours to help flood victims.”
“Such an example of public trust is not found anywhere,” PTI’s senior leader Chaudhary Fawad Hussain said on Twitter.
PTI senior leader Chaudhry Fawad Hussain said the money pledged would be received in the official accounts of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab governments.
Information minister Mariyam Aurangzeb did not respond to Arab News calls seeking comment for this story. Planning minister Ahsan Iqbal said Khan had also collected money for 2010 floods “but there was no visible activity on the ground.”
“Recent report of election commission of Pakistan has found evidence of Imran Khan using funds collected in the name of charity for his politics,” Iqbal said. “Therefore, we don’t know how much of it will materialize.”
Earlier this month, Pakistan’s election commission ruled that Khan’s political party had received millions of dollars in illegal funds from foreign countries, including the United States, the United Arab Emirates, the UK, and Australia.
It said the PTI received funds from different people and companies abroad, including business tycoon Arif Naqvi, owner of a Dubai-based equity group, who is among several people charged by US prosecutors with being part of an international scheme to defraud investors, including the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Some of the money received by the PTI was allegedly raised as charity to support a cancer hospital built by Khan.
Khan denies any wrongdoing
