PTI founding member requests ECP to probe foreign funding charge
Akbar S Babar claims PTI not cooperating with scrutiny committee
Prime Minister Imran Khan. PHOTO: PID
ISLAMABAD:
The estranged PTI founding member, who filed the foreign funding case against his party, filed another application on Saturday demanding that the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) should investigate into the matter itself instead of the scrutiny committee formed for this purpose.
In his application to the ECP, Akbar S Babar contended that the PTI was delaying the audit process being carried out by the scrutiny committee. Therefore, he added, the ECP should take possession of the committee’s records of the PTI bank accounts and probe into the case itself.
In his six-page application, Babar explained the reasons behind his demand. He stated that the PTI had not presented authentic records to the scrutiny committee during their 42 meetings. “The PTI is deliberately trying to make the committee ineffective,” he claimed. He further said the ECP had already held seven hearings on the matter and 16 directives of the committee had been ignored by the PTI.
Babar had 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. On October 10, a three-member bench of the ECP headed by CEC Sardar Mohammad Raza had rejected four applications filed by the PTI requesting secrecy during the investigation of its foreign funding case.
The PTI then moved the Islamabad High Court against the decision.
Recently, the ECP accepted the opposition’s plea for daily hearings of the case.
Separately, the ECP has clarified that the chief election commission had issued no directives for deciding the PTI foreign funding case in 15 days. ECP spokesperson Altaf Khan said the commission had only decided to hear the case on a daily basis. “The rumours about deciding the case within 15 days are baseless,” he added. Federal Education Minister Shafqat Mehmood had earlier told the media that ECP had decided to conclude the case in 15 days.
Websites
The ECP has directed all political parties to create their websites to make their details public, including their manifesto and the names of their office-bearers. In a letter, the ECP stated that the parties were bound to create their websites under the Election Act and provide details of their central and provincial office-bearers on the internet. The letter has been issued to all 125 parties registered with the ECP.
The estranged PTI founding member, who filed the foreign funding case against his party, filed another application on Saturday demanding that the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) should investigate into the matter itself instead of the scrutiny committee formed for this purpose.
In his application to the ECP, Akbar S Babar contended that the PTI was delaying the audit process being carried out by the scrutiny committee. Therefore, he added, the ECP should take possession of the committee’s records of the PTI bank accounts and probe into the case itself.
In his six-page application, Babar explained the reasons behind his demand. He stated that the PTI had not presented authentic records to the scrutiny committee during their 42 meetings. “The PTI is deliberately trying to make the committee ineffective,” he claimed. He further said the ECP had already held seven hearings on the matter and 16 directives of the committee had been ignored by the PTI.
Babar had 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. On October 10, a three-member bench of the ECP headed by CEC Sardar Mohammad Raza had rejected four applications filed by the PTI requesting secrecy during the investigation of its foreign funding case.
The PTI then moved the Islamabad High Court against the decision.
Recently, the ECP accepted the opposition’s plea for daily hearings of the case.
Separately, the ECP has clarified that the chief election commission had issued no directives for deciding the PTI foreign funding case in 15 days. ECP spokesperson Altaf Khan said the commission had only decided to hear the case on a daily basis. “The rumours about deciding the case within 15 days are baseless,” he added. Federal Education Minister Shafqat Mehmood had earlier told the media that ECP had decided to conclude the case in 15 days.
Websites
The ECP has directed all political parties to create their websites to make their details public, including their manifesto and the names of their office-bearers. In a letter, the ECP stated that the parties were bound to create their websites under the Election Act and provide details of their central and provincial office-bearers on the internet. The letter has been issued to all 125 parties registered with the ECP.