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A bombshell report by the British daily Financial Times (FT) has revealed some of the alleged sources of PTI’s foreign funding and has been creating a stir on social media.
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The report by FT’s Simon Clark claims that Arif Naqvi, the founder of the Dubai-based Abraaj Group, raised and collected money abroad for the PTI and then transferred it to the party’s accounts in Pakistan through intermediaries.
Naqvi, who is currently under house arrest in London and faces extradition to the United States, organized the “Wootton T20 Cup” in the Oxfordshire village of Wootton to raise funds for the PTI “and foreign nationals as well as citizens of Pakistan sent millions of dollars to Wootton Cricket — before money was transferred from the account to Pakistan for the PTI,” the British daily reported.
The guests at the “weekend of sports and drinking” were “asked to pay between £2,000 and £2,500 each to attend, with the money going to unspecified ‘philanthropic causes’.”
The FT has based its report on “a bank statement covering the period between February 28 and May 30 2013 for a Wootton Cricket account in the UAE.” It has also quoted from email communication between Navi and Rafique Lakhani, the senior Abraaj executive responsible for managing cash flow.
At least $2 million to the Wooton Cricket account came from Sheikh Nahyan bin Mubarak al-Nahyan, a member of Abu Dhabi’s royal family, the report claimed.
Sheikh Nahyan bin Mubarak al-Nahyan is now UAE’s minister for tolerance and an investor in Pakistan.
Abraaj Group also transferred $1.3m to the PTI and expensed the cost to a holding company through which it controlled K-Electric, the FT said.
The funding was made before the 2013 general elections that turned the PTI from a one-seat party to a sizeable political force in the parliament.
“Wootton Cricket Ltd, despite the name, was in fact a Cayman Islands-incorporated company owned by Naqvi and the money was being used to bankroll Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, Khan’s political party, the Financial Times said.
The newspaper also referred to the Election of Pakistan’s investigation into PTI’s prohibited funding and said that Wootton Cricket was named in the ECP report in January 2022, but Naqvi wasn’t identified as its owner.
“In its January report, the election commission said Wootton Cricket had transferred $2.12mn to the PTI but didn’t reveal the original source of the money. Naqvi has acknowledged his ownership of Wootton Cricket and denied any wrongdoing. In a statement, he told the election commission that: ‘I have not collected any fund from any person of non-Pakistani origin, company [public or private] or any other prohibited source,’” read the FT report adding that “the bank statement for Wootton Cricket tells a different story.”
Citing the bank statement it said that “Naqvi transferred three instalments directly to the PTI in 2013 adding up to a total of $2.12mn. The largest was the $1.3mn from Abraaj which company documents show was transferred to Wootton Cricket but charged to its holding company for K-Electric.”
Bribe for Sharifs
The FT story discusses at length Abraaj’s effort to sell K-Electric to Chinese state-controlled Shanghai Electric Power.
It said that since political approval for the deal was important, Naqvi “authorised a $20mn payment for Pakistan politicians to gain their support” and that the money was “allegedly intended for Nawaz Sharif and his brother Shehbaz,” the FT said without making it clear whether the money was paid to Sharifs or not.
K-Electric deal did not win approval under the Sharifs neither it could get a node under Imran Khan, who while in office did criticize officials for delaying the sale of K-Electric, the report said.
Former FIA Chief Bashir Memon, in an April 2022 interview with SAMAA TV, had claimed that Imran Khan had stopped him from carrying out an investigation against K-Electric.
Response from Imran Khan and PTI
The British daily sought responses from Arif Naqvi, Imran Kh, and others. While Naqvi did not comment, Imran Khan, in a written response to FT, said that neither he nor his party was aware of Abraaj providing $1.3mn through Wootton Cricket.
Imran Khan also said he was “not aware” of the PTI receiving any funds that originated from Sheikh Nahyan. “Arif Naqvi has given a statement which was filed before the Election Commission also, not denied by anyone, that the money came from donations during a cricket match and the money as collected by him was sent through his company Wootton Cricket,” Khan wrote.
After the report created a stir on social media on Friday, PTI’s Fawad Chaudhry offered three varying responses and explanations.
First, tweeting in English he referred to Naqvi’s affidavits submitted to the ECP and the PTI. If there is any illegality it’s between Naqvi and the UK authorities, Fawad said.
Fawad then also claimed that the FT story said $20 million were “paid” to Sharif as a bribe by Naqvi.
In subsequent tweets in Urdu, Fawad compared the legal proceedings against Abraaj Group with the BCCI scandal — Bank of Credit and Commerce International was founded by Pakistanis in 1970s but collapsed after a Western money laundering investigation.
Fawad Chaudhry also claimed that the “Israeli lobby” was behind the foreign funding “propaganda” against the PTI.
Another PTI spokesperson Farrukh Habib held a press conference and claimed that the FT story said $20 million were “paid” to Sharifs as a bribe.
He also said that the PTI never received foreign funding and urged the ECP to focus on the funding sources of PML-N and PPP.
Social media stir
The story has taken social media by storm with a lot of users discussing the contents. Two of the teams in Wooton Cricket T-20 cups were named “Faisalabad Fothermuckers” and “Peshawar Perverts”.
Since the FT published the story under the heading “The strange case of the cricket match that helped fund Imran Khan’s political rise” the name of one team “Faisalabad Fothermuckers” has been trending in Pakistan.
The interest generated in Pakistan amused Simon Clark, who shared a photo of the story from the print edition.
