ECP snubs PML-N’s reply in funding probe

Scrutiny committee tells party to furnish details of donors

ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan’s (ECP) scrutiny committee on Friday expressed its dissatisfaction over the PML-N’s one-page reply to the seven-point questionnaire it was handed over in connection with foreign funding allegations.

Both the PML-N and the PPP handed over their answers to the questionnaire to the committee during its meeting chaired by the director general law.

The committee declared that the PML-N’s one-page reply was insufficient and told the party to furnish complete details of its donors along with copies of their identity cards on December 3.

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Jahangir Jadoon, the PML-N lawyer, told the committee that the party had neither received foreign funding, nor had a secret bank account abroad.

He added that the PML-N was in the process of collecting copies of the identity cards of its donors.

The lawyer said the scrutiny committee would be provided with every detail which it required.

Shahbaz Khosa, the PPP’s lawyer, submitted the answers to the committee on behalf of the party.

He informed the committee that the PPP did not own any company in the United States.

The committee said it would review the answers and summoned the representatives of the PPP on December 3.

PTI Parliamentary Secretary Farrukh Habib, who filed the petition against the PPP and the PML-N accusing them of illegally receiving funds from the US and the UK, also appeared before the committee.

He said the two parties were told submit details of their foreign accounts, donors and funding.

Instead, he added, the two parties’ only answer to all the queries was that “we have no answer”.

“If there is one party that does not have copies of identity cards [of its donors] is the PML-N,” he maintained.

“It [PML-N] spent billions of rupees on advertisements, but has no answer to where that money came from,” he added.

Habib wondered if the money for the advertisements came from benami accounts.

“The PML-N’s records will arrive from Abu Dhabi on camels because it they were not found in Raiwind. Perhaps they will come in the form of a letter from Qatar,” he quipped. “The PML-N will have to answer for its LLC in UK.”

ECP to hold daily hearings in foreign funding case against PTI

On November 20, the ECP had ordered daily hearing of foreign funding charges against the PTI. The development came on an application submitted to the ECP by the joint opposition’s Rahbar Committee, which urged the commission to decide the case before the retirement of the incumbent chief election commissioner.

However, the commission also decided to hear the petition filed by Habib against the PPP and the PML-N in 2017 and issued notice to the two parties.

On Monday, Habib had said his party had provided the details of 40,000 donors to the ECP over the foreign funding charges.

He claimed that all the party's accounts had been declared and each of its transactions had been made through the banking channel.

The PTI leader also urged the ECP to hear the foreign funding charges against the PML-N and the PPP on a daily basis.

“The two parties will have to give their money trail and they can no longer hoodwink the masses,” he said.

“The two parties have kept their accounts secret and did not declare their sources.”