Nation wants to know who funded PTI from India, Middle East, US: Ahsan Iqbal – Pakistan

PML-N Secretary General Ahsan Iqbal challenged Prime Minister Imran Khan on Thursday to reveal "who funded Pakistan's Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) from India, the Middle East and the United States."

Addressing a press conference in Islamabad, the PML-N leader asked why the prime minister was supposedly not revealing the money trail of foreign PTI funds.

Read more: There is nothing to worry about in the case of foreign financing, Imran ensures PTI

"Now the time has come when the nation is asking for receipts," he said, claiming that the ruling PTI hid 23 party accounts of the Electoral Commission of Pakistan (ECP) and the public.

He claimed that millions of dollars were processed through these undeclared accounts.

Innocent Pakistanis abroad were tricked into donating funds for the party while painting a false and bleak picture of the state of things in Pakistan, Iqbal claimed, adding that these donations were not disclosed anywhere and looted through accounts private.

"It was the worst robbery in the history of Pakistan's democracy."

The leader of the PML-N criticized the conduct of the PTI with respect to the case of foreign financing, saying that he is involved in corruption, although he accuses other parties of being corrupt and declares himself "Mr Clean". He alleged that the PTI has been using dilatory tactics to keep the case of foreign financing pending before the PCE.

Countering the assertion of government spokesman Firdous Ashiq Awan that the PML-N was trying to influence the PCE, he said: "We are only demanding that the matter be resolved."

The PML-N asked the ECP to decide the matter as soon as possible, Iqbal said, instead of accusing the PTI of preventing the ECP from functioning freely under a strategy.

"We have now understood why the PTI created obstacles in the agreement of two ECP members [appointment] and now they are waiting for the chief election commissioner to withdraw to raise the point that, in the absence of three of its members, the ECP cannot manage its business.

"I, being the general secretary of the PML-N, am saying on the record that we do not have an unreported account," he said.

Iqbal said Prime Minister Imran says that the PTI has nothing to worry about in the case of foreign financing, but if that was so "why is a secret being created around the case? Public and the media?

"We demand an open trial of the case," he said, claiming that the prime minister, "the man who thinks he is a symbol of honesty" wants to keep the case secret.

"The biggest robbery in democratic history has been revealed. Why don't you present the money trail of PTI's foreign financing?" He said as he addressed the Prime Minister.

"You accuse others of [having] Benami accounts, 23 PTI benami accounts have now been discovered. Why did you hide these 23 accounts from the public? Where were donations used and why is the money hidden from the public? ", I ask.

On the issue of the economy, he said that the PTI government over the past 15 months has taken the country to the "brink of total destruction."

He accused the government of having "crushed" the economy and cited the rise in the electricity tariff, the increase in inflation, the decrease in people's purchasing power and the disturbances between merchants and farmers. The industries are in the process of reducing personnel, he said.

Iqbal said the government has halved funds for the Higher Education Commission (HEC) and filed its new projects.

Despite the bleak scenario, he added, the prime minister said the economy was recovering. He told the government that "reality on the ground cannot be hidden with false figures presented on social networks."

According to Iqbal, although the government had recently announced a record foreign direct investment (FDI) in the country, the reality was that the government had issued Treasury bills against a record interest rate.