PTI foreign funding case: Ruling party legislator lashes out at ECP for ‘leniency’

The hearing was put off due to objections over changes to the bench hearing the case.

ISLAMABAD: A ruling party’s lawmaker lashed out at the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) for allegedly delaying the foreign funding case hearing against PTI.

Danyal Aziz alleged that the case was proceeding with ‘mutual understanding’ and the trial was a travesty of justice. The case keeps being adjourned for one reason or the other for the last few months, he said.

In his own words, he sat as an observer inside the courtroom during the hearing of Imran Khan’s petition challenging the ECP’s decision to order examination of the party’s accounts after allegations were made that the party receives illegal foreign funding and contributions.

“Why is the case being delayed at the ECP without a formal stay [order] granted by the high court,” he asked while addressing the media outside the Islamabad High Court. He criticised the ECP’s lawyers for “showing leniency”.

“The party which accused us of hiding behind stay orders is itself hiding behind a virtual stay,” he said, adding that his apprehensions about the inordinate delay in the case were strengthened after attending the hearing.

While criticising the judiciary, Aziz said that the courts were quick to give verdict against the Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N), while laws seemed to be different for other parties.

On Tuesday, the case was adjourned after Khan’s counsel raised objection that the case had been fixed before a different division bench from the one which has previously heard the case. Earlier, the case was fixed before a division bench comprising Justice Noorul Haq N Qureshi and Justice Aamer Farooq. On Tuesday, the case was fixed before Justice Qureshi and Justice Athar Minallah.

PTI Finance Secretary Sardar Azhar Tariq refuted the allegations of mutual understanding, saying that the case was pending before the ECP as the matter was sub judice before the high court.

On December 21, 2015, He said that the ECP lawyer gave an undertaking before the ECP that the matter was sub judice before the IHC and the case may be adjourned. He added that the ECP adjourned the case till February 1.

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

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

Earlier, an IHC bench had clarified that it would not resolve the issue of whether or not the PTI was receiving illegal foreign funding, rather it will limit the case to the petition and the jurisdiction and procedural powers of the ECP.

The bench had remarked that the court is not concerned with where the funding came from, but it only if the legal course of law has been followed or not.

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

Published in The Express Tribune, January 27^th, 2016.