ECP to announce PTI prohibited funding case verdict tomorrow

The much-delayed verdict, reserved in June this year, to be announced at 10am on Tuesday

The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) will announce its verdict in the much-delayed prohibited funding case against Imran Khan-led Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) tomorrow (Tuesday).

A three-member bench of the ECP will announce the verdict — reserved in June earlier this year — at 10am tomorrow, reported Express News quoting the top electoral body’s cause list issued on Monday.

The development came as constituent parties of the coalition government led by Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) had been calling upon the ECP to announce the verdict in the case at the earliest.

Leaders of the ruling coalition from the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) and Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) on Friday met senior officials of the ECP, including the chief election commissioner (CEC), in an effort to convince the electoral body to announce its verdict reserved in the prohibited funding case involving the PTI.

Also read: PTI set to file ‘judicial reference’ against CEC over ‘unlawful’ meeting

Addressing a news conference after the meeting, PML-N leader and former prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi said that the joint delegation spoke with the ECP officials, urging them to “decide the case of prohibited foreign funding as soon as possible”.

“The prohibited funding case has been ongoing for eight years,” he had said. “The election law says that if a party takes money from a foreign individual, it has to be declared.”

Subsequently, the PTI announced to file a ‘judicial reference’ against CEC Sikander Sultan Raja and other members of the ECP for allegedly violating the code of conduct.

Also read: 'PTI directly benefited from foreign funding'

Former premier and PTI Chairman Imran Khan on Saturday formally directed his legal team to initiate the process of filing the reference against the CEC and ECP members for meeting a delegation of the ruling alliance and discussing the prohibited funding case against PTI with them.

The foreign funding case was filed by PTI founding member Akbar S Babar who had alleged serious financial irregularities in the PTI’s funding from Pakistan and abroad.

On January 4 this year, an ECP scrutiny committee report unearthed that the PTI had concealed several accounts and around Rs310 million between 2008 and 2013 from the electoral body.

It had further disclosed that the party had received $44,000 from 88 foreign donors during this period.

The undisclosed accounts have been mentioned in a report by the State Bank of Pakistan. The scrutiny committee had also included its analysis of the bank accounts in the report.