Foreign funding or a case of prohibited funding?

             The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) Prohibited Foreign Funding Case verdict will be announced by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Tuesday morning (today). Anxious political pundits across the nation started flying kites on Monday as they were overheard making predictions about the likely verdict, which is sure to have a significant impact on the future of the nation.

 

While some of these analysts believed that the election watchdog would only decide whether "prohibited" PTI donations should be confiscated in favor of the State, per the July 23, 2002 notification, some pundits believed that if contributions had been received by the PTI directly or indirectly from foreign countries multi-nationals or domestically incorporated into public or private companies, a ban is most likely to be imposed on its functioning as a political party. Although the nation was keenly watching, the majority of experts believed that the case would ultimately move to the Supreme Court for the final interpretation of the stellar case.

 

According to research by the "Jang Group and the Geo Television Network," 54 states do not forbid their political leaders from seeking financial support from foreign governments, corporations, or individuals. However, 124 nations around the world forbid political parties from accepting donations from these sources.

 

(Reference: A political finance database for 180 nations has been created by the highly regarded Swedish intergovernmental organization known as IDEA, which claims to have helped sustainable democracy throughout the world since its founding in 1995.) These 124 nations with foreign money restrictions include 33 from Africa, 20 from North and South America, 34 from Asia, 33 from Europe, and 4 from Oceania, which includes Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, and other nearby islands.

 

These nations forbid any kind of outside financial support or contribution, including from Pakistan and India. Likewise, among the 54 countries that do not have such restrictions are 17 from Africa, 14 from North and South America, 3 from Asia, 11 from Europe, and 9 from Oceania.

 

Fierce discussions on this contentious topic have been going on around the world for years, at a time when nearly all prominent political parties in Pakistan are angrily accusing one another of obtaining funding from illegal foreign sources and other vested interests. The Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) disclosed in November 2021 that over 55% of the funds received by regional Indian parties in 2019–20 originated from "unknown" sources in India, where foreign funding to political parties is still prohibited.

 

The Indian Express stated in its November 12, 2021 issue that electoral bonds accounted for over 95% of the donations from "unknown" sources. While 25 regional parties collectively got donations of Rs 803.24 crores in 2019–20, Rs 445.7 crores of that amount were ascribed to 'unknown' sources, according to the report. Election-related bonds accounted for Rs 426.233 crores (95.616%) of the donations from "unknown" sources, while voluntary contributions made Rs 4.976 crores. According to the study, national parties received donations from "unknown" sources that accounted for 70.98% of their revenue.

 

This publication reported that in an article published on June 10, 2021, a few months earlier.

 

According to its contribution report presented to the Election Commission for 2019–20, the incumbent BJP had garnered around Rs 7.85 billion in donations from businesses and individuals (EC). The Congress Party had received Rs. 1.39 billion, which was more than five times this amount.

 

One of the largest donors to the BJP was Rajeev Chandrasekhar's Jupiter Capital, along with the ITC Group, Macrotech Developers, BG Shirke Construction Technology, and Prudent Electoral Trust, and Jankalyan Electoral Trust.

 

"Indian Express" reported: In October 2019, Gulmarg Realtors, the real estate firm connected to builder Sudhakar Shetty, made a significant donation to the BJP of Rs 20 crores. In January 2020, the Enforcement Directorate searched Shetty's home and workplace. At least 14 academic institutions contributed to the BJP. Among them are the Mewar University in Delhi ($2 million), the Krishna Institute of Engineering ($10 lakh), the G. D. Goenka International School ($2.5 lakh), the Pathania Public School ($2.5 lakh), the Little Hearts Convent School ($21,000), and the Allen Career in Kota ($2.5 lakh) (Rs 25 lakh).

 

According to the "US Law Library of Congress," several regulations are in place in the UK to make sure that contributions made to political parties and politicians are controlled through expenditure caps and reporting requirements for the parties and candidates.

 

The funding of the British political parties by wealthy donors came under the spotlight as soon as the "Pandora Papers"—which revealed the secret offshore accounts of 35 current and former presidents, prime ministers, as well as more than 100 billionaires and celebrities—came to light on October 3, 2021.

 

In 2020, Prime Minister Boris Johnson proposed Peter Cruddas for a seat in the House of Lords. Cruddas had donated £50,000 to Johnson's bid for party leader.

 

Similar to this, a businessman later found guilty of lying to the government donated £2.4 million to the Liberal Democrats in 2005, making him the party's biggest donor. Despite Michael Brown not being a registered voter in the UK and being discovered making a donation through a recently formed corporation, the party came under fire for not returning the donation. Geoff Hoon, Stephen Byers, and Patricia Hewitt, three former Labor ministers, were expelled from the party in 2010 after they were caught on camera ostensibly helping a lobbying business in exchange for money.

 

'BBC News' has stated in 1994: The then-owner of Harrods, Mohamed Al Fayed, was accused of giving money to Conservative MPs Tim Smith and Neil Hamilton. Hamilton maintained his innocence even after Smith quickly resigned after acknowledging the payments. But he was compelled to leave his position as minister of corporate affairs. In 1997, he also lost his parliamentary seat.

 

The "Voice of America" reported on this in the United States on November 5, 2019: The revelation that business associates of presidential attorney Rudy Giuliani were indicted for funneling foreign money into federal and state campaigns and political action committees is just one example of how recent headlines have highlighted ways in which foreign donations can enter America's political bloodstream. Recently, businesspeople linked to Rudy Giuliani, the attorney for Donald Trump, were charged with transferring foreign funds to federal and state elections. Two men, Lev Parnas of Ukraine and Igor Fruman of Belarus, who assisted Giuliani in his investigation into former Vice President Joe Biden, allegedly planned to distribute $1 million from an unnamed Russian billionaire to numerous US candidates, according to the prosecution.

 

A global NGO named "Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative" claimed in 2013 that political parties in nations like Sweden and Turkey have a voluntary agreement to open up their data. While the bulk of the other nations' counterparts gets both public support and private contributions, several of these nations' parties are entirely dependent on state funding.

Political parties are required by law to reveal their financial information to the public in nations including Austria, Bhutan, Brazil, Bulgaria, France, Ghana, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Kazakhstan, Kenya, and Kyrgyzstan. Public disclosure of such funding is also made by Nepal, Poland, Romania, Suriname, Sweden, Tajikistan, Turkey, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan.

 

The NGO said that several forms of disclosure of information about political parties and election campaign finance have been implemented by nations including the US, UK, Belgium, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa, among others. Political parties must present a statement of accounts to the state in Japan per the law. Even Danish politicians have come under fire.

 

It is crucial to mention that the Christian Democratic Union, the largest political party in Germany, suffered from a financial scam in the 1990s. In addition to being convicted of failing to disclose cash donations, maintaining secret bank accounts, and making unauthorized wire transfers to and from foreign banks, the party had accepted concealed funds from an armored vehicle manufacturer to aid in promoting sales to Saudi Arabia and Canada.

 

Therefore, Kohl's lengthy 16-year stint in office was made possible by hidden political financing arrangements that included these infamous activities. As a result, former Chancellor Helmut Kohl's political influence diminished, which aided Angela Merkel in becoming the most potent conservative politician in Germany.