PESHAWAR: Former National Assembly speaker Asad Qaiser on Wednesday appeared before a Federal Investigation Agency team probing two bank accounts of his party, Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf, operated by him here.

The team gave him a form containing 23 questions mostly about the two bank accounts, including one opened in a Bank Islami (erstwhile KASB) branch in Peshawar cantonment area on Jan 23, 2010, and the other in the Habib Bank Limited’s Super Market branch in Peshawar on Aug 1, 2011.

After remaining in the FIA regional headquarters for around 40 minutes, Mr Qaiser told reporters that he would submit a detailed reply to the questionnaire after consulting his legal team.

The FIA deputy director (commercial banking circle), Peshawar, had ordered the current inquiry following the Aug 2 pronouncement by the Election Commission of Pakistan that the PTI had received funds from prohibited sources.

Ex-NA speaker says he will file response after consulting legal team

Mr Qaiser has already moved the Peshawar High Court against the current inquiry and the issuance of call-up notices to him by the investigation officer insisting that the FIA didn’t have jurisdiction to deal with the matter.

He said the ECP had neither issued any direction nor had it forwarded the case to the federal government for inquiry against the petitioner.

During previous hearings into the petition, the high court had directed the FIA not to take ‘adverse’ action against Mr Qaiser.

The bank account in question was disowned by the PTI before the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), which later placed it in the category of ‘unknown’ accounts.

In the questionnaire, the FIA asked Mr Qaiser if he owned accounts in the Bank Islami (ex-KASB) Peshawar and HBL Peshawar, what the purpose of opening bank accounts was, if he, as the president of the PTI KP, opened any other bank accounts for the PTI, if the approval of the PTI central secretariat was sought before the passing of the resolution to open bank accounts, if the amount was credited in those bank accounts from the central bank account or otherwise, if those accounts received foreign remittances, if he submitted any annual external audit report to the CFB regarding fund collections and disbursement, if he ever declared those accounts before the Provincial Election Commissioner KP or ECP Islamabad and why the PTI didn’t declare those bank accounts before the ECP.

The former speaker, who is a central PTI leader, was also asked about his profession before the joining of politics, the source of his income before and after beginning his political career, yearly tax payments, and bank accounts maintained by him individually or jointly.

According to the ECP orders, Rs2.11 million was withdrawn and Rs2.127 million deposited in the Bank Islami account, while Rs0.782 million was withdrawn from and Rs0,860 was deposited in the HBL Peshawar account.

In the questionnaire, Mr Qaiser was specifically asked about the sources of two Bank Islami account transactions, including that of Rs229,274 on July 19, 2010, and Rs84,802 on Sept 2, 2010.

Before the issuance of the last call-up notice, Mr Qaiser was formally called thrice to appear before the FIA team but he didn’t comply citing different reasons for it.

Former provincial governor Shah Farman had appeared before the FIA team on Aug 18 and received almost an identical questionnaire, but it was related to the Bank Islami account only.

Published in Dawn, September 8th, 2022