PTI continues to defy ECP panel in foreign funding case

ISLAMABAD: A special committee constituted to scrutinise foreign funding received by Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) adjourned hearing until June 21 without any progress.

On March 12, a five-member bench of the ECP headed by Chief Election Commissioner Sardar Mohammad Raza had formed the special committee in the foreign funding case.

The decision was taken three years after the foreign funding case was first filed, in November 2014, by a founding member of the PTI, Akbar S. Babar.

The committee has been granted a period of 30 days from its inception to complete the scrutiny process and submit its report to the ECP.



However, no progress has been made in the case as the PTI continued to defy its repeated orders to submit financial documents including bank statements.

The committee is headed by the director general, law and two auditors representing the defense establishment.

The foreign funding case has been in limbo for almost four years as the PTI has resorted to unending delaying tactics – including challenging the jurisdiction of the ECP and the locus standi of the petitioner and PTI founding member Akbar S Babar.

The PTI’s latest delaying tactics included challenging the committee’s terms of reference (ToRs) of the ECP scrutiny.

It could not complete its task as the PTI consistently failed to produce financial documents and instead raised objections to the ToRs and demanded secrecy of the proceedings.

On May 30, a full bench of the ECP headed by the CEC Justice (Retd.) Sardar Mohammad Raza Khan rejected all PTI objections and instructed the scrutiny committee to complete its mandate under the original ToRs.



Despite rejection of all PTI complaints, the scrutiny committee could not make any headway despite meeting successively on June 5, 6, and 7, as the PTI consistently failed to submit the requisitioned financial statements.

In its last meeting on Thursday, the committee postponed the proceedings until June 21 with a warning to the PTI that if it failed to submit the documents, the committee would seek the same from the State Bank of Pakistan.