PTI’s foreign funding case: Plea for early hearing of case dismissed

Directs counsel to file fresh application after ECP becomes functional.

ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Tuesday dismissed an application of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) seeking early hearing of the foreign funding case.

The application was moved before a division bench comprising Justice Noorul Haq Qureshi and Justice Aamer Farooq during the hearing of the petition of the PTI’s Chairperson, Imran Khan, challenging electoral body’s decision of ordering examination of audited accounts of the party on the allegations of receiving foreign funding and contributions.

When the counsel, Saqlain Haider, submitted application for early hearing, the court inquired about the urgency in the matter, especially when the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) is not functional these days.

Subsequently, the court, while dismissing the application, directed the counsel to file a fresh application after the ECP becomes functional.

Akbar Sher Babar, an estranged PTI founding member who developed differences with party chief Imran Khan over internal corruption and alleged violations of laws to maintain its accounts, had filed the case of alleged illegal foreign funding before the ECP in November last year.

Baber has sought account details of money transferred from abroad including the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and United Arab Emirates to the PTI accounts or to accounts of the party’s employees since July 2010 to date.

The division bench had remarked that the court had no concern from where the funding came but it intent to see if the legal course of law had been followed or not.

Earlier, Khan through his counsel Anwar Mansoor Khan challenged the ECP’s decision of scrutiny of record saying that the ECP did not have authority to adjudicate the matter of disputed facts and complaints raised under the Political Parties Order (PPO), 2002.

Assuming jurisdiction and opening past and closed transactions is in violation of laws, he had earlier said.

In the petition, he has prayed before the court to declare that the accounts submitted by the petitioner are past and closed transactions and Babar has no locus standi to approach the ECP under Article 6 of the PPO, 2002.

Babar’s counsel, Syed Ahmed Hasan Shah, had argued that the ECP was the only body to look into the matter of foreign funding, and where there were no set procedures, the law says, a commission decides itself what to do in the case.

In response to the arguments that the ECP had no jurisdiction to order examination of past and closed transactions on a private complainant, Shah said that the transactions were not past and closed until the next elections, and could be probed.

While countering the argument that the publication of party accounts in the gazette meant that there was no objection in it, Shah said that publication in the gazette means that the documents were open to public.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 22^nd, 2016.