ISLAMABAD: The Special Court on Offence in Banks on Wednesday exempted former prime minister Imran Khan and another leader of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) in the first information report (FIR) registered against them in connection with a prohibited funding case.

The judge Rakhshanda Shaheen adjourned further hearing till Jan 5 after accepting the plea seeking exemption of Mr Khan and Amir Kayani.

Mr Khan sought exemption over medical grounds while Mr Kayani’s counsel was seeking an exemption since he was out of the country. PTI leaders and office bearers Saifullah Khan Niazi, Tariq Shafi, Hamid Zaman, Syed Younis and Sardar Azhar appeared before the judge.

In an FIR registered earlier by the FIA’s Commercial Bank Circle in Islamabad, the investigation agency had pointed out: “The PTI submitted an affidavit of [Abraaj founder] Arif Masood Naqvi before the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) stating therein that all the amounts collected in the accounts of WCL (Wootton Cricket Limited) were submitted into PTI’s account in Pakistan … [the] affidavit has been proved to be false/forged as two more transactions were also made from WCL to two different accounts in Pakistan in May 2013.”

The FIR also mentioned United Bank Limited (UBL) for its alleged failure to report suspicious transactions to authorities.

“Chaudhary Shahid Bashir, the operations manager of UBL’s Jinnah Avenue branch in Islamabad, facilitated these suspicious/illegal transactions by not reporting the aforesaid illegalities to the authorities concerned and also allowed internet merchant acquiring agreement, changing the title of the account to Naya Pakistan,” it added.

The FIR, lodged in Islamabad contained sections 420, 468, 471, 477-A, and 109 of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC), read with sections 5 and 23 of the Foreign Exchange Regulation Act of 1947.

Published in Dawn, December 15th, 2022