Missing members: ECP postpones hearing of petition against PTI

ISLAMABAD:

The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Monday postponed the hearing of a case alleging financial irregularities by the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) due to the absence of two members of the commission.

A PTI founding member and former central information secretary Akbar S Babar had filed the petition with the ECP in November 2014, alleging financial corruption and illegal handling of PTI funds.

“The PTI is dragging its feet and using delaying tactics,” said Babar while taking to The Express Tribune. He said that the commission had asked the PTI to submit details of its funding sources but the order has not been complied with.

While explaining his argument that the PTI was using delaying tactics, he said that the party engaged Advocate Shoaib Shaheen when the hearing started in January this year. Shaheen initially submitted his arguments and contested ECP’s jurisdiction, he added.

Once the commission rejected PTI’s stance on jurisdiction, it changed legal representative and engaged former Attorney General Anwar Mansoor. Now Mansoor has taken up the settled issue and is once again contesting ECP’s jurisdiction to look into the matter. In addition, he [Mansoor] has taken general adjournment and is still in the US, he added.

If the PTI, he argued, has nothing to hide, instead of using delaying tactics, it should voluntarily offer the election commission to order investigations into the PTI accounts.

Babar, who was once a close confidant of Imran, also alleged that illegal foreign funds have been received in the PTI accounts to the tune of millions of dollars.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 18^th, 2015.