PTI again moves IHC seeking stay over ECP proceedings

Claims ECP cannot investigate it till higher court cases involving it and the party are resolved

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) has argued in the Islamabad High Court (IHC) that the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) cannot simultaneously act as a court and a party under the law in any matters relating to foreign funding received by the party.

In an application seeking a stay, PTI Chairman Imran Khan’s counsel maintained before the single bench comprising Justice Aamer Farooq that the ECP has become party to the proceedings of a case in the Supreme Court and has also passed an order against the PTI while acting as a court.

But Justice Farooq again declined the PTI request to restrain the ECP from proceeding further against PTI in the foreign funding case. On July 14, the court denied a request for a stay on a similar request by the PTI.



In the instant application, the counsel said that the petitioner had filed an application for stay of proceedings before the ECP while stating that PTI has filed a petition before the IHC against an order passed by the ECP on May 8.

Meanwhile, he said a separate petition was filed before the Supreme Court by the PML-N’s Hanif Abbasi against Imran Khan and the PTI, wherein the ECP is a party. In the concise statement, he added, the ECP has taken a clear unequivocal position against the petitioner and stated that “there has been fraud.”

Abbasi’s petition is fixed for rebuttal and a pending decision in the apex court, and the PTI counsel said the ECP chose to give details [in the SC] of the foreign funding case when the same was never asked for and have therefore become a party to the proceedings.

He said that the PTI had already filed an application for staying of proceedings by the ECP before the IHC which is still pending adjudication, and no reply has been filed by the respondents, including the ECP.

However, on August 16, the ECP dismissed the stay application the PTI had filed before it.

The counsel maintained that after dismissing the stay application, requiring the PTI to file the documents before the ECP will make the present petition infructuous.

Besides, he said, the ECP has pronounced a judgment against the PTI and stated in Abbasi’s petition before the apex court that “some sort of fraud is being contemplated by them.”

He has prayed the court to restrain the ECP from proceeding further in the matter till a verdict is issued by the SC or the IHC, whichever comes first.



In the main petition before the IHC, the PTI has once again challenged jurisdiction of the ECP as well as its May 8 order in the foreign funding case.

Imran Khan has challenged the May 8 decision by claiming that under the Political Parties Order, the ECP does not have jurisdiction to adjudicate complaints filed by citizens.

The PTI chairman said that the PPO does not provide the framework of a tribunal for adjudication of complaints and scrutiny of accounts. He also said that accounts submitted by the petitioner are past and closed transaction.

He has made the ECP and Akbar Sher Babar respondents. Babar in his application before the ECP had questioned the sources of foreign funding received by the PTI.

In the order passed on May 8, the ECP dismissed jurisdictional objections, holding that commission has all plenary jurisdiction to scrutinise the accounts of a political party at any time.

The ECP order read that the PTI counsel could not produce any direct authority to the effect that election commission records cannot be looked into by the ECP itself.

Imran Khan has prayed the court to suspend ECP’s May 8 order and declare it illegal and void. He has also asked the court to declare the accounts submitted by the petitioner ‘past and closed transactions’ and to declare that Babar has no legal standing to have filed the case.