Prime Minister Imran Khan on Monday directed effective steps to further strengthen the organizational structure of ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) across the country ahead of local bodies elections in Punjab and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.
The premier also asked PTI leaders to “activate” party workers for success in the upcoming local government elections. He expressed these views during a meeting with Minister for Planning and PTI General Secretary Asad Umar.
During the meeting, the premier said that the party had presented its funding receipts to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) and the “scrutiny committee has cleared the party of all suspicions.”
“All other political parties should provide the receipts of their funding too,” the premier demanded.
He said that out of total funding of Rs310 million, an amount of Rs150 was shown twice. “This [error] will be cleared in the next hearing of the ECP,” PM Khan said.
Talking about the electronic method of transferring funds (TTs) for overseas wire transactions, the prime minister said: “Isn’t Shahbaz Sharif ashamed of himself since he used too many TTs to launder money?” He said that the “PML-N should give an account of the billions of rupees of funding it received from overseas sources.”
Among others, the meeting was attended by PTI Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) president Pervez Khattak, Punjab chief Shafqat Mahmood, south Punjab president Makhdoom Khusru Bakhtiar, Sindh president Syed Ali Haider Zaidi, Balochistan’s head Qasim Khan Suri and Additional General Secretary Aamir Mahmood Kiyani.
Last month, the prime minister announced new organisational structure of the party a day after he dissolved all previous bodies over dismal performance of the PTI in the first phase of local government elections in KP.
He appointed Asad Umar as the PTI secretary-general and named other party leaders as the chiefs as the provincial chiefs of the party.
On the same day, Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry disclosed that the premier had disbanded the entire party structure and removed all officer-bearers after evaluating their performance in the first phase of the KP local government elections.
In the elections held on December 19, the JUI-F clinched 15 seats, the ruling party secured eight seats while the Awami National Party (ANP) won six seats. PTI’s stronghold Peshawar also fell to JUI-F as the party clinched the mayor’s seat.
Separately, Prime Minister Imran Khan Monday said credit off-take of Rs1,138 billion by the private sector during 2021 was the highest during the last 10 years.
“Private sector credit off-take of Rs1,138 billion in the calendar year 2021, is the highest in [the] last 10 years. It shows increasing private sector confidence and investment and a strong growth momentum in the economy,” the prime minister posted on his Twitter handle.
