ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan said on Wednesday he welcomed scrutiny by the election commission into funding received from overseas Pakistanis by the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, the current ruling political party in the country, of which Khan is the founding chairman.

Khan’s comments come a day after a report compiled by the scrutiny committee of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) said PTI had received funding from foreign nationals and companies, underreported funds and concealed dozens of bank accounts.

The report emerged as the ECP resumed hearing of what has come to be called the “foreign funding case” against the PTI, which was filed in November 2014 by Akbar S. Babar, a founding member of the party, and pertains to allegations the party received funds from dubious, prohibited, illegal and undeclared sources. 

In 2017, Pakistan’s apex court ruled that political parties could not receive funds from foreign companies. Since 2014, the ECP and its Scrutiny Committee have heard the foreign funding case over 150 times, with PTI seeking adjournment on 54 occasions.

“I welcome ECP’s scrutiny of PTI’s funding through donations from Overseas Pakistanis,” Khan said on Twitter. “The more our accounts are scrutinized the more factual clarity will emerge for nation to see how PTI is the only political party with proper donor base premised on proper political fundraising.”

The PM added that he looked forward to the ECP also scrutinizing the funding of Pakistan’s two opposition parties, the Pakistan Peoples Party and the Pakistan Muslim LEague-Nawaz:

“This will allow nation to see difference between proper pol[itical] fundraising & extortion of money from crony capitalists & vested interests in exchange for favors at nation’s expense.”

Following Tuesday’s proceedings at the ECP, Information Minister Chaudhry Fawad Hussain termed the report “inaccurate” and said Khan had always provided a record of “every single penny.” The minister called on the election commission to also scrutinize the accounts of the the PPP and the PML-N parties: 

“It is important to have a comparison with the accounts of [PMK-N leader] Nawaz Sharif and the PML-N as well as the PPP.”