ECP tells plaintiff he’ll get PTI foreign funding papers

Commission assigns task to its secretary to ensure that Akbar S Babar receives all records

ISLAMABAD:

The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Tuesday appointed its secretary as in-charge of providing all records of the PTI foreign funding case to the petitioner, former party member Akbar S Babar.

The hearing of the case was held in Islamabad presided over by the chief election commissioner. The petitioner, Babar, appeared before the commission and maintained that he was being subjected to delay tactics on the provision of documents pertaining to PTI’s foreign funding.

“Sometimes it is said that the petitioner should appear in person to obtain the documents and on other occasions, we are told that the lawyers should come too,” he complained.

His lawyer requested the commission to provide the documents at the earliest.

PTI’s lawyer Anwar Mansoor maintained that he had appeared after recovering from Covid-19, and therefore, he would be unable to present his arguments.

The lawyer representing Babar said there were irregularities in the findings of the scrutiny committee on the basis of which the report had been submitted.

He complained that ECP’s director general for law did not want to obey the orders of the commission.

In response, the ECP’s DG law maintained that only seven to eight volumes remain to be provided to Babar and that would be done by the evening.

The chief election commissioner directed the ECP secretary that he would be responsible for the provision of documents to the petitioner.

Also read: ECP hands over PTI foreign funding record to petitioner

The ECP adjourned the case till February 9.

Minister of State for Information Farrukh Habib, after attending the ECP hearing, told reporters that the scrutiny committee had exposed the claims made by Babar.

“He [Babar] should be removed from the case as he could not satisfy the scrutiny committee,” he said, demanding that the ECP itself should hear the matter.

The state minister further claimed that the PML-N did not have details of its foreign funding amounting to Rs640 million. He added that the PTI had submitted all the records to the ECP and its scrutiny committee.

Habib claimed that nine secret foreign accounts of the PML-N were hidden.

“So far, the PML-N has not given a record of its foreign funding.”

He added that the PPP and PML-N had the same approach on secret foreign funds. “According to law, the accounts of all political parties should be checked.”

He maintained that the statement of PML-N leader Rana Sanaullah was an attack on judiciary. “The PML-N did not even refute his [Sanaullah] statement,” he said, demanding that the party must be held accountable in court.

Habib said after the retirement of the ECP member, the scrutiny committee had become inactive. “The ECP is requested to reactivate the scrutiny committee,” he urged, demanding that the body should also compile reports on the accounts of the PML-N and PPP soon.