Scrutiny report on parties’ funding given to IHC

Court rejects PTI’s objections over ECP’s delay in submission of document

ISLAMABAD:

The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has presented its 165-page progress report on the scrutiny of funds of the PPP, PML-N and JUI-F to the Islamabad High Court.

Moreover, the PTI’s objections over the delay in the submission of the report to the court were rejected.

The commission cited continuous change of lawyers, adjournment requests, and unavailability of the scrutiny team members as well their constant transfers as reasons behind the delay.

The ECP maintained that a member had left the country to participate in a course. It added that it took four months for the appointment of a new member.

The retirement of former deputy auditor general Masood Akhtar Sherwani on December 13, 2021 also left the scrutiny team non-functional, the ECP added. It continued that the Covid-19 outbreak also affected the functioning of the team.

The commission said its committee member, Manzoor Akhtar Malik, was on leave from July 16, 2021 to September 17, 2021 because of his open heart surgery.

Later, Malik left the country from October 24, 2022 to November 17, 2022 to perform Umrah.

The commission claimed that because of the extended leave of its committee member Khurram Raza Qureshi, it had to replace him with Hasnaat Malik.

The ECP claimed that it was providing a level playing field to all political parties without any partiality.

It added that the scrutiny committee had met several times between July 31, 2018 and January 16, 2023 and no political party could claim that it was being singled out for the process.

The ECP maintained that the reservations raised by the petitioner, the PTI, were baseless and contrary to the facts.

On PTI leader Amer Kiyani’s application, the scrutiny of the funding of 19 political parties has also been made part of the record.

In April last year, the PTI had filed a petition in the IHC against the ECP's alleged bias in the prohibited funding case.

Apart from the ECP, 17 political parties were named as respondents in the case.

The parties included the PML-N, PPP, MQM-P, JUI-F, Awami Muslim League, Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan, Balochistan Awami Party, Balochistan National Party and Awami National Party.

The petition called on the court to also issue directives to the ECP to adjudicate upon the cases against other political parties within a month -- a timeframe it had set for the commission to dispose of the PTI’s case.

“It should be ordered that the State Bank of Pakistan investigate the accounts of all political parties and make the details of the findings public.”

The petition charged that the electoral watchdog’s behaviour was biased against the PTI, citing that the commission had refused to scrutinise the accounts related to the other political parties, in contrast to how it proceeded against its accounts.