Slugfest at ECP ahead of PDM protest

Opposition parties, ruling PTI accuse each other of receiving illegal funds from abroad

ISLAMABAD:

Representatives of three major political parties – the ruling PTI as well as the PML-N and the PPP – on Monday appeared before a scrutiny committee of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), as the ruling and opposition parties accused each other of receiving illegal funds from abroad.

Interestingly, the scrutiny committee meeting took place a day before the 11-party opposition alliance – the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) – is scheduled to protest outside the ECP office against the alleged delay in a foreign funding case originally filed against the PTI.

Appearing before the committee on Monday, PML-N’s Ahsan Iqbal rejected that the biggest opposition party ever received any funds from abroad and said the PTI’s attempt to implicate his party in a foreign funding case was like a counter first information report (FIR).

The PTI representative Farrukh Habib told the committee that the PML-N could not present details of its foreign funds. Latif Khosa, who represented the PPP, said the PTI had also not presented any evidence about its funds.

During the meeting, the PTI insisted that the ECP implement its orders regarding the PML-N.

“We do not have secret accounts. We have submitted details of our donors to the ECP,” the PML-N secretary general said. “It was the PTI that received funds not only from the Pakistanis abroad but also from Pakistan's enemy lobbies, Israel and India,” he alleged.

The trio also reiterated their allegations against the rivals during their media talk after the meeting.

PTI’s Farrukh Habib said the opposition demands that the PTI be held accountable but the PDM has fallen into its own trap. “The PDM has become a divided movement. Their protest is another attempt to get an NRO [reprieve],” he said.

Responding to Iqbal’s allegations that the PTI received funds from India and Israel, Habib said: “You were friends with [Indian steel magnate Sajjan] Jindal. You also sent your representative to Israel. You brought money from outside the banking channel and still you have the cheek to lodge protest.”

He said the PML-N did not submit identity cards nor did it provide a list of donors.  Habib said the PPP and PML-N are using tricks to delay the proceedings of the scrutiny committee. “The PDM leadership is currently facing the worst crisis.”

Ahsan Iqbal said the PTI had acknowledged that it received foreign funding but placed the responsibility on its agents. He alleged that millions of rupees were spent on creating political instability in the country, in a reference to the PTI’s 2014 marathon sit-in.

“The ECP should declare the 2018 election as null and void. It is hoped that the ECP will cancel the registration of the PTI and disqualify Prime Minister Imran Khan,” he added.

PPP leader Latif Khosa said that Farrukh Habib's claim has been falsified. He said the PPP has not received a single penny of foreign funding.

“The scrutiny committee has closed the PPP case today. However, it is not the mandate of the scrutiny committee to issue a verdict,” he added. “The PTI did not present any evidence regarding the funds it received from foreign sources,” Khosa said.

The country’s polls supervisory body on January 7 ordered the scrutiny committee to expedite its probe into alleged foreign funding of three major political parties of the country.

The scrutiny committee last week briefed an ECP meeting, presided over by Chief Election Commission Sikander Sultan Raja, about the progress made so far on the issue. According to sources, the ECP had expressed concern over delay in the process of scrutiny.

The members of the scrutiny committee had told the meeting that the political parties’ lawyers came late in the meetings due to their busy schedules at high courts. The ECP had directed the committee to work three days a week and complete the scrutiny process as soon as possible.

Earlier, the PDM announced to stage a sit-in outside the ECP headquarters in order to protest against the ECP’s allegedly inordinate delay in concluding a foreign funding investigation against the ruling PTI.

The PDM chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman had accused the ruling party of receiving illegal funds from other countries including Israel, a claim vehemently rejected by the PTI.