Pakistan

ECP adjourns hearing of petitions against Imran, Tareen indefinitely

Links the cases with outcome of similar cases pending with the apex court

Irfan Ghauri June 06, 2017

PTI Chief Imran Khan. PHOTO: REUTERS

ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Monday adjourned, for an indefinite period, the hearing of petitions seeking disqualification of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) chief Imran Khan and party’s general secretary Jehangir Tareen, linking the cases with the outcome of similar cases pending with the apex court.

Adjournment sine die of the case by a five-member bench of the ECP is yet another breather for the PTI leadership. The ECP has already disposed of references sent by the National Assembly speaker with a plea to disqualify the two top PTI men as members of the lower house.

The cases adjourned were based on two separate petitions filed last year by the ruling party’s Talal Chaudhry and Muhammad Khan Daha against Imran and Tareen, respectively.

Imran files reply to ECP’s contempt notices

Imran is charged with submitting with the ECP dubious financial statements prior to the 2002 general election when he was elected MNA for the first time. Imran’s aide Tareen is accused of getting bank loans illegally written off.

The PTI, however, has another potentially more lethal case pending with the ECP since 2014.

In the case, tagged as foreign funding case, the petitioner – a disgruntled party activist, Akbar S Babar – has alleged that Imran got party funds from abroad through prohibited sources and used illegal channels to transfer them to Pakistan before the 2013 general elections.

PTI counsel admits ‘omission’ on part of Imran

The PTI has, however, managed to drag it till now somehow.

In reaction to the PTI cases that implicated Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his family in the Panamagate case, former PML-N MNA Haneef Abbasi had moved the Supreme Court against Imran on almost similar grounds. He also filed a petition in the top court demanding audit of the PTI funds.

The apex court took up both his cases last month and is conducting regular hearings. The Supreme Court has sought record of foreign funding case from the ECP on the next hearing scheduled for June 13.