Islamabad: The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) on Friday constituted a five-member team to probe the prohibited funding case against the Pakistan Tehreek Insaf (PTI) and the utilization of the prohibited funds by the party.
The FIA team will supervise the inquiry teams in five different zones, i.e. Islamabad, Lahore, Karachi, Peshawar and Quetta.
The formal launching of the investigation team was carried out after the FIA received a letter from Akbar S. Babar. He requested the Agency to initiate a probe against the PTI for receiving funds through accounts opened in the name of junior employees.
FIA Director Mohammad Athar Waheed heads the five-member team.
FIA’s additional director Khalid Anees, deputy director Khawaja Hammad, Chaudhary Ijaz Ahmed and assistant director Ijaz Ahmed Sheikh will be members of the team that has been tasked with supervising the ongoing enquiries into PTI’s funding case.
A notification issued by the FIA’s economic crime wing director says that the probe is being conducted under Section 6 of the Political Parties Order, 2002.
PTI received prohibited funding: ECP
The development for the FIA to constitute an investigation team followed the ECP’s verdict of August 2, in which the Commission said that the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) did receive funding from prohibited sources.
Read: PTI received prohibited funding: ECP announces verdict
The verdict said that the party received funds from 34 unknown sources and hid 13 accounts from the electoral body.
The list of funding sources also includes donors from Australia, UAE and the US.
“The party accepted funds from a US business personality,” it added.
The ECP declared that the affidavit submitted by the party related to funds was false.
Govt appoints Mohsin Butt as new DG FIA
In a high-level transfer in the bureaucracy, the federal government on July 27 removed Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) Director General Muhammad Tahir Rai and appointed Mohsin Butt as the new DG FIA.
The decision to remove Tahir Rai from the post was taken in a meeting of the federal cabinet. The meeting had come a day after the Supreme Court removed Hamza Shehbaz from CM Punjab.
