CEC says ECP won’t succumb to ‘pressure’

Vows to decide foreign funding case on ‘merit’

ISLAMABAD:

A day after the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf held nationwide protests outside the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) offices, Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Sikandar Sultan Raja on Wednesday vowed not to succumb to “any sort of pressure” and decide the foreign funding case on “merit”, saying “injustice” will not be done with any political party.

The CEC’s remarks came while hearing the PTI foreign funding case. The former ruling party has been holding protests outside the election supervisor’s offices across the country against Raja’s alleged biased behaviour.

It accused the CEC of being “partisan and dishonest”, saying the ECP was not de-notifying membership of the party’s dissident legislators and demanded of the election commissioner to resign.

The PTI further accused the election supervisor of targeting the party in the foreign funding case and maintained that fair elections were not possible under the incumbent CEC.

Since his ouster from power earlier this month, former premier Imran Khan had time and again been demanding elections, saying the only solution to the country’s crisis is early polls.

The foreign funding case had been pending since November 14, 2014. The case was filed by dissident PTI founding member Akbar S Babar who alleged serious financial irregularities in the party’s funding from Pakistan and abroad.

During the hearing on Wednesday, PTI counsel Anwar Mansoor Khan demanded of the ECP to hear the PML-N and PPP funding cases along with the PTI foreign funding case.

“PTI foreign funding case cannot be heard until all other cases are brought here,” he said, in an apparent reference to the PML-N and PPP funding cases.

Babar’s lawyer Ahmad Hassan objected to Khan’s stance of hearing all the cases at the same time, saying “it means that all murder cases should be heard together” and asked the ECP to impose a “heavy fine” on PTI for adopting such stance.

ECP member responded that the commission was aware of its mandate and asked Khan if he wanted the election supervisor to hear the PTI case along with other parties. He said all the cases would be dealt equally.

Read ECP indicates polls not possible before May 2023

Addressing the PTI lawyer, Raja said the ECP always gave the date of Khan’s choice and that they were bound to follow the Islamabad High Court’s (IHC) order.

“They (IHC) have not stopped the commission from hearing the case,” the CEC said, adding that the ECP was faced with three types of cases (PTI, PML-N and PPP).

“[We] conducted scrutiny of 101 political parties [of which] there were discrepancies in 17 accounts.”

Raja said the ECP would give its detailed stance in the IHC, adding that the commission would continue the hearing the case.

While referring to Imran’s statement, the CEC pointed out that the foreign funding case had been going on for the last eight years, adding that the commission was heading to decide the case even before the IHC order.

On Monday, the IHC suspended its earlier order directing the ECP to decide the foreign funding case against the PTI in 30 days.

“The commission formulates its own procedure. [Do] you think the commission should take the dates from another court?” the CEC asked.

The PTI counsel requested the ECP to fix the hearing of the case after Eidul Fitr, saying he wanted to prove that those who had funded the party were Pakistanis and that all the companies were solely owned.

The CEC said that the PTI lawyer could continue his arguments for “six months if they were relevant”. Khan replied that he would complete his arguments after two weeks.

Raja asked Khan to give the date of his choice for the hearing of case to which he requested the ECP to fix it after Eid.

The CEC ruled out Babar counsel’s objection to the adjournment saying the case had been continuing for eight years and “delay of a week or two would not make any difference”.

“The decision will be taken on merit. The commission is not ready to take any sort of pressure.  Injustice will not be done with any party,” the election commissioner said.

“We don’t have to see whether five or 500,000 people have come outside [ECP office],” he added in an apparent reference to the PTI’s protests outside election commission’s offices across the country.

Raja said the ECP “respected” Khan’s statement and adjourned the hearing of PTI foreign funding case till May 10.