In the “Wootton T20 Cup”, which Naqvi chaired from 2010 to 2012, the main event was a cricket tournament between teams with invented names: Peshawar Perverts or Faisalabad Fothermuckers. They played on an immaculate pitch set amongst 14 acres of formal gardens and parkland at Wootton Place, Naqvi’s 17th-century residence. Veteran cricket commentator Henry Blofeld attended along with expert umpires and film crews. “You can choose to play to impress or make fun of yourself, or alternatively just be an innocent bystander,” Naqvi wrote in an invitation to the event. Guests were asked to pay between £2,000 and £2,500 each to attend, with the money going to unspecified “charitable purposes”, Naqvi said. It’s the type of charity fundraiser that’s repeated up and down the UK every summer. What makes it unusual is that the ultimate benefactor was a political party in Pakistan. The fees were paid to Wootton Cricket Ltd, which, despite the name, was actually a Cayman Islands-based company owned by Naqvi and the money was used to fund the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, his political party Khan. Funds poured into Wootton Cricket from companies and individuals, including at least £2 million from a United Arab Emirates government minister who is also a member of the Abu Dhabi royal family. Pakistan bans foreign nationals and companies from funding political parties, but Abraaj emails and internal documents seen by the Financial Times, including a bank account covering the period between February 28 and May 30, 2013 on behalf of Wootton Cricket in the UAE, show that both companies and foreign nationals as well as Pakistani citizens sent millions of dollars to Wootton Cricket — before money was transferred from the account to Pakistan for PTI. The party’s funding is at the center of a long-running investigation by the Election Commission of Pakistan, one that has taken on even greater significance as Khan — who lost office in April — plans a political comeback. Arif Naqvi surrounded by players during the Wootton T20 Cricket Cup event at his home in Oxfordshire But in 2013, Khan – a World Cup-winning cricket captain – was riding a wave of popular support and campaigning to overturn Pakistan’s politics on an anti-corruption ticket. He presented himself to the electorate as a democratic reformer – born in Pakistan and experienced in the West – who could break the grip of political family dynasties that have dominated the country for decades. Although Khan lost the 2013 general election to long-time rival Nawaz Sharif, his party became the third largest in the National Assembly. Naqvi’s star was also rising. His private equity firm was expanding and winning new investors. He became a regular member of the meetings of the World Economic Forum in Davos. In July 2017, the Supreme Court of Pakistan removed Sharif from office on corruption charges. Khan won election in July 2018. As prime minister he has become increasingly critical of the West, praising the Afghan Taliban when US forces left in 2021 and visiting Vladimir Putin in Moscow on the day Russian forces invaded Ukraine in February. The Election Commission of Pakistan has been investigating PTI’s funding for more than seven years. In January, the ECP’s audit committee issued a damning report saying PTI received funding from foreign nationals and companies and accused it of misrepresenting funds and hiding dozens of bank accounts. Wootton Cricket was named in the report, but Naqvi was not identified as its owner. In April, Khan resigned after losing a parliamentary vote of no confidence, caused in part by rising inflation. He accused the US of orchestrating the vote and is now attempting to mount a political comeback to contest a general election due to be held by October 2023. Imran Khan campaigned in Karachi in 2013. Although he lost that general election, his PTI became the third largest party in Pakistan’s National Assembly © Athar Hussain/Reuters This re-election bid means that although Naqvi’s funding took place almost a decade ago, the controversy surrounding it and the election commission’s final findings are likely to be at the forefront of Pakistani politics for some time. While it has previously been reported that Naqvi funded Khan’s party, the ultimate source of the money has never been revealed before. Wootton Cricket’s bank statement shows it received $1.3 million on March 14, 2013 from Abraaj Investment Management Ltd, the fund management unit of Naqvi’s private equity firm, boosting the account’s previous balance of $5,431. Later that day, $1.3 million was transferred from the account directly to a PTI bank account in Pakistan. Abraaj spent the costs on a holding company through which he controlled K-Electric, the electricity provider in Karachi, Pakistan’s largest city. Another $2 million flowed into the Wootton Cricket account in April 2013 from Sheikh Nahyan bin Mubarak al-Nahyan, a member of the Abu Dhabi royal family, a government minister and chairman of Pakistan Bank Alfalah, according to the bank statement and a copy of Swift. transport details. Naqvi then exchanged emails with a colleague about transferring an additional $1.2 million to PTI. Six days after the $2 million arrived in the Wootton Cricket bank account, Naqvi transferred $1.2 million of it to Pakistan in two installments. Rafique Lakhani, Abraaj’s senior executive in charge of cash flow management, wrote in an email to Naqvi that the transfers were meant for PTI. Sheikh Nahyan did not respond to requests for comment. Abu Dhabi King Sheikh Nahyan bin Mubarak al-Nahyan, right, talks with Pakistan’s then president Arif Ali Zardari in 2012. Nahyan funneled funds to PTI through Wootton Cricket’s bank account © Nadeem Soomro/Reuters “Like other populists, Khan is made of Teflon,” says Uzair Younus, director of the Pakistan initiative at the Atlantic Council, a Washington-based think tank. “But his opponents will try to use the foreign funding controversy to weaken the argument that he is not corrupt,” he adds, and encourage the election commission to “punish him and his party.”

Useful ally

Naqvi, 62, was born into a business family in Karachi. After studying at the London School of Economics, he spent the 1990s working in Saudi Arabia and Dubai and launched Abraaj in 2002, building it into an investment powerhouse. With offices in Dubai, London, New York and across Asia, Africa and Latin America, the company has raised billions of dollars from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the US administration of Barack Obama, the British and French governments and other investors. Well connected, Naqvi liked to impress. John Kerry – a speaker at an Abraaj event – was approached by the company about working with it after serving as US Secretary of State. Naqvi met Britain’s Prince Charles and became active in one of his charities, the British Asian Trust. He was a member of the board of the UN Global Compact, which advises the UN secretary-general, and sat alongside former Nissan chairman Carlos Ghosn on the board of the Interpol Foundation, which raises funds for the global police agency. In Washington he was considered a useful ally. The Obama administration has pledged $150 million to an Abraaj fund that invests in Middle Eastern companies: a press release said the partnership will help make the US president’s promise to improve economic relations with Islamic nations a reality. Some even saw him as a potential future political leader in Pakistan, which he once described as “a country not known for transparency,” before adding that Abraaj “did everything by the book” in controlling K- Electric. “We avoided any point where you had to come into contact with the government – even though you were a joint venture – and you had to pay something to somebody,” he said. Arif Naqvi, pictured at Abraaj’s New York office, The private equity firm, founded by Arif in 2002, also had offices in Dubai, London and across Asia, Africa and Latin America © Angel Franco /New York Times/Redux/eyevine K-Electric was Abraaj’s single largest investment. But as the private equity firm ran into financial difficulties in 2016, Naqvi struck a deal to sell control of the power company to Chinese state-controlled Shanghai Electric Power for $1.77 billion. Political approval for the deal in Pakistan was important, and Naqvi lobbied both the Sharif and Khan governments for support. In 2016, he approved a $20 million payment to Pakistani politicians to win their support, according to US prosecutors who later charged him with fraud, theft and attempted bribery. The payment was reportedly intended for Nawaz Sharif and his brother Shehbaz, who replaced Khan as prime minister in April. The brothers denied knowledge of the matter. In January 2017, Naqvi hosted a dinner for Nawaz Sharif in Davos. After Khan became prime minister, Naqvi met him. While in power Khan criticized officials for delaying the sale of K-Electric, but the deal has yet to be completed. Abraaj collapsed in 2018 after investors, including the Gates Foundation, began investigating whether the company misused money in a fund meant to buy and build hospitals across Africa and Asia. Abraaj said it managed about $14 billion in assets at the time. In 2019, US prosecutors indicted Naqvi and five former colleagues. Two former Abraaj executives have since pleaded…