ISLAMABAD: The Federal Investigation Agency has alleged that PTI chief Imran Khan was misusing the interim bail to skip the court hearings in a prohibited funding case.

“A bail application filed by PTI Chairman Imran Khan is pending before the banking court,” the FIA said in its application filed in the same court in Islamabad on Saturday. “Imran is not cooperating with the FIA for the investigation.”

The federal crime agency had booked Imran and other PTI leaders in October 2022 on the accusations of receiving prohibited party funding. The case was filed by the state through FIA’s Corporate Banking Circle in Islamabad after the former ruling party failed to declare a large chunk of the funding with the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP).

A special court in Islamabad had granted him interim bail. He kept getting his bail extended on medical grounds, after surviving an attempt on his life at a rally in Wazirabad on Nov 3 last year. Imran had received bullet wounds.

The FIA in a petition has urged the court to form a medical board for the examination of PTI chief Imran Khan. The agency put forward the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences or Polyclinic Hospital names for the said request.

Reports of such hospitals could be considered, it said and reiterated that a medical board must be formed for Imran’s examination. The agency demanded that an order should be given to submit the reports to the court.

“Stereotype (sic) medical certificate was being presented from a cancer hospital, although the petitioner alleges he has issues related to orthopedic (sic),” the petition said.

The agency went on to add that Imran Khan heads the Shaukat Khanum Memorial Cancer Hospital & Research Centre—the infirmary where he is being treated—so it cannot accept the medical report as “valid”.

Prohibited funding case

In August, the ECP announced that the PTI took prohibited funding from foreign companies and hid 13 accounts out of the total 34 from where it received the money.

“This is the unanimous decision of the bench,” Chief Election Commissioner Sikandar Sultan Raja, who led a three-member bench of the commission, said while announcing the decision.

“The party knowingly and willfully received funding from Wootton Cricket Limited, operated by business tycoon Arif Naqvi. The party was a willing recipient of prohibited money of $2,121,500,” said the copy of the verdict.

The commission said the party “knowingly and willfully” also received donations from Bristol Engineering Services (a UAE-based company), E-Planet Trustees (a Cayman Islands private registered company), SS Marketing Manchester (a UK-based private company), PTI USA LLC-6160 and PTI USA LLC-5975 which were “hit by prohibition and in violation of Pakistani laws”.

“Imran Khan, for the five years under review, has filed submissions that were grossly inaccurate and wrong. Even during the course of scrutiny and hearing by this commission, the PTI continued to conceal and withhold complete and full disclosure of [the] source of its funds,” it said.