Foreign funding case: IHC declines PTI’s request to stay ECP proceedings

Issues notices to respondents with directions to submit reply on next date of hearing

ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Friday declined the PT’s request to stay proceedings of the foreign funding case being heard by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP).

While declining the request for interim relief, Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani issued notices to the respondents with directions to submit reply in the case on the next date of hearing.

In his remarks, Justice Kayani said the case had been pending for a long time and the IHC had previously remanded back the case to the ECP with directions for a fresh decision in view of the PTI’s objections.



PTI chief Imran Khan had again challenged the jurisdiction of the ECP as well as its order of May 8 before the IHC in the foreign funding case. He claimed that the ECP did not have jurisdiction, under the Political Parties Order (PPO), 2002, to adjudicate the complaints filed by citizens.

Imran said the PPO did not provide framework of a tribunal for adjudication of complaints and scrutiny of accounts, and that the accounts submitted by the petitioner are past and closed transaction.

He had nominated the ECP and Akbar Sher Babar as respondents. In his application to the ECP, Babar, a former leader of the PTI, had questioned sources of foreign funding to Imran’s party.



In the order passed on May 8, the ECP dismissed objection qua its jurisdiction and held that the ECP had all and plenary jurisdiction to go into and scrutinise accounts of a political party at any time.

The ECP order reads that the PTI counsel could not produce any direct authority to the effect that the record of the election commission could not be gone into or scrutinised by the ECP itself.