PTI foreign funding hearing adjourned till Jan 13

Founding member of the party Akbar S Babar had filed the case in 2014

ISLAMABAD: The scrutiny committee of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) adjourned the hearing of the foreign funding case against the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Inasf’s (PTI) till January 13.

The 48th meeting of the ECP scrutiny committee was convened on Monday with DG Law in chair.

PTI’s counsel Shah Khawar and petitioner Akbar S Babar appeared before the panel.

The panel reviewed the documents submitted by the PTI and adjourned the proceedings till January 13.

Talking to media outside the ECP office, petitioner Babar said, “ECP’s scrutiny committee has completed half-century of its meetings. We pray that inquiry is completed before the panel completes its century”.
Akbar S. Babar, a founding member of the PTI, had filed the case in 2014, alleging that the party had illegally collected about $3 million through two offshore companies, and that the money was sent through illegal channels from the Middle East to certain accounts of “PTI employees”.

He also alleged that the foreign accounts used to collect the funds were not mentioned in the annual audit reports submitted to the ECP by the PTI.

The scrutiny committee was formed in 2018 to investigate the issue of foreign funding of the PTI in a month, but later the time-limit was extended to an indefinite period.