Contours Of Political Fundraising: By STRAIGHT TALK by Hafeez Khan

ECP’s findings that PTI has done “prohibited fundraising” are bogus. They have thrown the kitchen sink at PTI full of falsehoods. PTI team has to go into overdrive to identify persons and companies wrongly named and debunk these assertions. PDM’s rejoicing is premature. Will it stand scrutiny by the Supreme Court? ECP exceeded its mandate and disrespected Pakistan’s benefactors – The Overseas Pakistanis.

IK has kept his financial hygiene spotless in over three decades in public life. Let me share a personal experience. Travelling with IK during early days of PTI, I always wondered why he wore kurtas with two pockets;where traditionally it is only one. I found the reason soon enough. At the end of each event people would rush to him to donate. There was no way to keep a track of thesecontributions in such overwhelming crowds. So IK would inquire what the funds were for. For Shaukat Khanum he would put the money in one pocket and for PTI in the other. At the end of a grueling day, upon return he would pull two envelopes from his bedside drawers, write SKMT on one and PTI on the other. Then he would empty each pocket, insert the donations, seal and sign on the flap and hand them over to his trusted staff.

The Election Order of 2002 was in force for the period in question. It does not prohibit company donations. PTI hassubmitted a list of 40,000 donors in the most detailed accounting ever seen in our political history. Details of every dollar donated over a five year period. Thecomplaint was filed by Akbar S. Babar, a former PTI member and office holder. He was an early entrant from Baluchistan. I had a chance of working with him. He came from an NGO background with preconceived notions about how PTI should run, including who could or could not join PTI.

After October 2011, floodgates opened for new entrants. Akbar, stuck in the NGO mode, could not handle it. The Party expanded, new leadership emerged and Akbar felt sidelined and frustrated. He was venomous, stole party records and was welcomed through his mentor Mahmood Khan Achakzai by PML (N) with open arms. For personal revenge he launched his crusade against Imran Khan and PTI. The rest is history.

The partisan ECP, in cahoots with PML (N), is seeking a technical knockout of IK. They are full of flaws and lies.PDM has run out of options how to contain IK and his exploding popularity among the masses. Unable to face him politically, they reverted to their default settings of intrigue and manipulation. ECP has penalized one party that has provided total transparency. It has ignored accounts of the other three behemoths of political bribery and extortion; PML (N), PPP and JUI. This selective persecution happened despite Supreme Court’s decision to treat all parties equally and fairly.

My friend, Raja Anwar, shared a list of the 10 richest men in Pakistan, India, China and USA. Except Pakistan, in thecountries the vast majority are innovators and entrepreneurs who have created huge wealth. Not one of them is a politician. It is the opposite in Pakistan. Except two self made billionaires living overseas, the rest are politicians, their henchmen or inherited wealth. Why? In other countries the wealthy make money first and then seek influence or power. In Pakistan, power and influence is pursued first and then used to make money using their positions. Unfortunate but true. That is how Nawaz Sharif and Asif Zardari made this list.

The three PDM parties have not been scrutinized by the partisan ECP. While in power using their positions, theydole out favors to their lackeys who in return payback as personal bribes for favors received. If ECP ever gets to look into sources of PML (N), PPP or JUI they will find proofs like the Qatari letter and stories of Bin Laden’s contribution to Sharifs or Kaddafi’s largesse to Fazal abound. They live in the eighties and have no concept of political fundraising.

Having lived in North America, I am very familiar withfundraising by politicians. I have attended many such events where participants donate by choice. This is exactly what PTI has done. Imran Khan introduced the concept of fundraising first for charitable donations for Shaukat Khanum Hospital and then for PTI. President Obama is credited for introducing “crowd funding” in his 2008 presidential campaign. In fact IK did it in the nineties for the hospital when he reached out to schools and roadside donors to collect small amounts.

This latest onslaught is a continuation of regime change. PDM’s foreign masters have started extracting their pound of flesh. The latest drone attack that killed Al-Zawahri in Afghanistan could not have used air space of Iran, Russiaor regimes under their influence. Pakistan is the only other option. While IK said “absolutely not”, this spineless regime permitted it. It is payback time.

For the first time in 75 years Pakistani nation has risen to the call of “La Illaha ill lal la.” The jinni is out of the bottle. Corrupt, selfish and subservient imported regime, their handlers and foreign masters cannot subjugate Pakistanis through lies and manipulation. The nation is united behind Imran Khan. Attempts at technical knockout will be defeated through popular will. A free and fair election under a re-constituted ECP is the only answer. You can delay it through such shenanigans, however it as inevitable as a writing on the wall.