PTI challenges foreign funding case decision

Court asked to declare ECP’s verdict null and void

ISLAMABAD: The PTI on Thursday moved the Islamabad High Court (IHC) against the Election Commission of Pakistan’s (ECP) decision in the foreign funding case on October 10.

The party cited the election commission, Akbar S Babar and the scrutiny committee formed for the case as respondents. It requested the court to stop the scrutiny committee from carrying on its work and declare the ECP’s decision as null and void until the IHC announced its verdict on the matter.

The PTI also maintained that the ECP had acted beyond its jurisdiction in its October 10 decision and illegally rejected the party’s applications.

The party argued that Saqlain Haider, after his appointment as the deputy attorney general, could no longer represent the PTI as its lead lawyer in the foreign funding case and everybody had the basic right to have a counsel of their own choosing.

It claimed that the ECP had announced its decision without the hearing the PTI’s argument and proceeding further without issuing a notice to the parties was in violation of Article 10(a) of the constitution.

On October 10, a three-member bench of the ECP headed by Sardar Mohammad Raza had rejected four applications filed by the PTI requesting secrecy during the investigation of its foreign funding case.

The ECP bench directed the scrutiny committee to carry on its work.

Akbar S Babar, a disgruntled founding member of the PTI, filed the foreign funding case in 2014, alleging that nearly $3 million in illegal foreign funds were collected through two offshore companies and that money was sent through illegal ‘hundi’ channels from the Middle East to accounts of ‘PTI employees’. He had also alleged that the foreign accounts that used to collect funds were concealed from the annual audit reports submitted to the ECP.

For over a year, the proceedings of the case were delayed in the ECP as the PTI had filed a writ petition in October 2015 in the Islamabad High Court seeking to restrain ECP from scrutinising its accounts.

In February 2017, the IHC had remanded the case back to the ECP for a fresh review of its jurisdiction. On May 8 of the same year, a full bench of the ECP had once again declared its complete jurisdiction over the matter and stated that the PTI had failed to produce any evidence that the petitioner had been expelled from the party.

In March 2018, a scrutiny committee was formed to ascertain any wrongdoing in PTI’s foreign funding accounts.

The PML-N filed a separate case against the PTI seeking the details of the party’s accounts from 2014 to 2018 from the ECP.