Undeterred PTI puts on a brave face following ECP verdict

Party plays down ECP verdict on prohibited funds, says it has been 'vindicated'

ISLAMABAD:

Following the ECP’s ruling in the PTI prohibited funding case, the party on Tuesday appeared to be putting a positive spin on the conclusion of the eight-year-old case, insisting the verdict has actually proved its own stance that it was not being doled out foreign funds.

The top election supervisory body, in its verdict on Tuesday, ruled that the PTI had indeed received prohibited funds and that it had only owned eight accounts before the commission and declared 13 accounts to be unknown.

The order also said that it was “constrained to hold that Imran Khan failed to discharge his obligations as mandated under the Pakistani statutes.”

However, addressing a press conference, PTI leader Farrukh Habib maintained that the case only vindicated PTI's long-held stance that it was not a "foreign-funded" party, as alleged by the political rivals.

He pointed out the silver lining in the case, saying the PTI has merely been issued a notice and has not been banned.

He added the show-cause notice will be responded to adequately.

The party claimed that “no foreign funding has been proven”, and that the verdict has only exposed “another propaganda” of the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) – a coalition of political parties that remain staunch critics of the PTI.

‘Only party to run on fundings’

Speaking to the media, senior party leader, Fawad Chaudhry said that the PTI was the “only party in Pakistan that does funding.” adding that the party “does not hide its funding from the people”.

"Oversees Pakistanis have also funded” the party, stated the former minister and questioned why the PML-N considers them "enemy”.

Admitting that the party should have declared 16 accounts, however, he said that “Imran Khan did not know about them”.

In a tweet earlier this morning, Fawad had termed the verdict as “no big deal”.

“The election commission is not going to make political decisions. The real decision is to be made by the people,” he had stated.

He furthered that “both the Supreme Court and the High Court have decided that the ECP should decide the cases of all three [major] political parties together,” and accused the electoral watchdog of not looking into the PML-N and Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP)’s funding.

Continuing the attack on the electoral watchdog, PTI General-Secretary Asad Umar said that the commission is “acting like a political party instead of an unbiased institution”.

Umar questioned why the ECP was not releasing the funding reports of rival parties in the ruling coalition, which he termed a “violation of the Supreme Court and High Court’s directives".

Echoing similar sentiments, Awami Muslim League (AML) Chairman Sheikh Rashid demanded the Chairman Election Commission (CEC) resign from his post.

He said that “nobody could cause Imran any damage” regardless of how hard they tried.

Much ado about nothing,” he remarked.