Prohibited funding case: ECP declares local company as foreign firm

ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has declared a Pakistani company as a foreign firm in a prohibited funding case against Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), ARY News reported on Tuesday.

According to details, the ECP noted that PTI ‘knowingly and willfully’ received funding from Zain Cotton Private Limited and declared the company a ‘foreign firm’. However, the Zain Cotton is owned by a Pakistani citizen Mian Akhtar Javed.

Mian Akhtar Javed was a PTI’s ticket holder from PP-89 of Pir Mahal in 2013. Zain Cotton Private Limited was registered in 1992 in Faisalabad. The owner deposited a check worth Rs10,000 to party’s fund.

Taking to ARY News exclusively, Mian Akhtar Javed said that the company belongs to his family and they are Pakistani citizens. “Overseas Pakistanis were also included in the foreign funding case,” he said, terming the decision ‘unfair’.

It is pertinent to mention here that the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) announced the much-awaited verdict in the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf prohibited funding case.

The ECP bench in its reserved verdict said prohibited funding against PTI has been proven. ECP, in its unanimous verdict, ruled that the party received funds from business tycoon Arif Naqvi and from 34 foreign nationals.