PTI leaders clash over claim of election funds embezzlement

Internal strains within the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf surfaced in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on Monday after provincial assembly Speaker Babar Saleem Swati alleged that most donations sent by overseas Pakistanis for the party’s 2024 election campaign were siphoned off, triggering a sharp response from party lawmaker Laiq Mohammad Khan.

Speaking at a gathering held for the groundbreaking of the Dilbori Gali-Machasar Torghar Road in Jar Galli, Swati said, "Overseas Pakistanis had transferred substantial funds for the PTI’s 2024 election campaign, but 75 per cent of those funds were allegedly embezzled by a group within the party." He did not name any individual while making the allegation.

Laiq Mohammad Khan, an MPA and younger brother of PTI leader and Senator Azam Khan Swati, rejected the remarks and said the matter would be taken to court. He said, "The speaker has raised serious allegations and we will challenge them in a court of law. He should identify who the direct beneficiaries of those overseas funds are and who received a share of that money."

He also said the foreign funding issue would be raised inside the party to establish how much money had been received and who benefited from it. Defending development allocations for Torghar, Laiq Mohammad Khan said they were secured through his side’s efforts and added that the district’s voters had strongly backed Imran Khan in the 2024 elections.

The exchange came during an event linked to a Rs980 million road scheme financed by the World Bank. Swati inaugurated the project and said he had helped obtain funds for the road connecting Mansehra and Torghar, along with other uplift schemes.

Swati also credited former PTI divisional president and MPA Zargul Khan for many of the projects now under way in Torghar, saying most had been approved on his demand. He added that Zargul Khan, who left PTI before the 2024 general elections, had played an important part in the creation of Baffa-Pakhal and Darband tehsils in Mansehra district.

In his response, Laiq Mohammad Khan questioned why comparable schemes had not been sanctioned for Mansehra if the speaker wielded such influence in securing funds. He said successive chief ministers, including Mehmood Khan, Ali Amin Gandapur and Mohammad Sohail Afridi, had allocated substantial development money to Torghar in recognition of the area’s political support.

The speaker’s remarks were widely seen within party circles as a reference to Senator Azam Khan Swati, who had publicly raised corruption allegations against the KP speaker earlier this year.