Foreign Funding case: ECP body continues re-examination of evidence provided by PTI

ISLAMABAD: The ECP Scrutiny Committee has continued its re-examination of the evidence provided by the ruling party PTI in Foreign Funding case while it is still unclear when the committee would complete proceedings of the case as it is yet to re-examine the record of PML-N and PPP.

On Wednesday, the committee met for the first time since the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) directed it to expedite progress in Foreign Funding case last week, and started re-examination of the record provided by the ruling party in the case. This exercise continued on Thursday and the committee is also expected to meet today (Friday), it is learnt.

Although, the ECP has failed to give any deadline to the committee to complete its probe in Foreign Funding case, the scrutiny panel wants the case to be completed by March 31 this year. "It is a complex and time-consuming exercise-to start the probe afresh and re-examine all the record. Currently, the record provided by the ruling party is under scrutiny and the record to be provided by PML-N (Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz) and PPP (Pakistan People's Party) in this case will be re-examined once the re-examination of PTI record is over," an ECP official told Business Recorder.

It, the official said, would be a 'great achievement' on part of the Scrutiny Committee if the proceedings of Foreign Funding case are completed and related report is submitted to the commission by March 31 this year.

Few days back, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) said it submitted its entire record to the Scrutiny Committee in the Foreign Funding case.

The record including the details of donations from overseas Pakistanis including LCC (Life Cycle Costing) account, the names, addresses, computerised national identity card numbers and contact numbers of the overseas donors, the details of related bank transactions, relevant bank statements, and receipts of relevant financial activities were submitted by the PTI to the committee, according to the official.

In the previous report that the Scrutiny Committee submitted to the ECP, responsibility was not fixed against anyone which was the major reason the electoral body rejected as incomplete this report on August 27 last year, it is learnt.

The ECP then directed the committee to start afresh its probe, fix responsibility in the case (if there is clear evidence), and submit the report on October 22, 2020, but Scrutiny Committee failed to meet this deadline. The ECP has now asked the committee to submit report 'at the earliest' without giving any deadline.

On the sixth of this month, the ECP expressed concern over slow pace of progress in Foreign Funding case and directed the Scrutiny Committee to meet thrice a week to complete the proceedings of the case but the ECP again failed to give any deadline to the committee regarding the completion of its pending report into the case.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2021