ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Fawad Chaudhry on Wednesday called out the coalition government for trying to push the party against the wall, saying imposing a ban on the party and Imran Khan was beyond Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and its allies control.
Speaking at a presser, he touched on the ECP’s verdict on the prohibited funding case, claiming the “imported regime” was overjoyed with the outcome, but everything will end up in smoke shortly.
Taking a jibe at the coalition government, he said that the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) held 12 press conferences yesterday and are holding them since this morning as well, which shows their frustration.
He further said that the Chief Election Commissioner, Sikandar Sultan Raja, delivered the judgement under “urgency”, as requested by the PDM leaders in the meeting held prior to the verdict.
He questioned how the chief election commissioner was authorized to have meetings amid a pending case.
“The PTI will protest against this on Thursday (today). The ECP has no right to send references to the government,” he said, adding that the verdict was altered upon the request of the law minister.
He also shared that a reference has been filed against the chief election commissioner and the Sindh members, as he questioned how they were allowed to sign the verdict.
He said that the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) – an anti-PTI alliance of 11 political parties – is building castles in the air if they are thinking they can succeed the most popular leader – Imran Khan – of the country in connivance with a controversial electoral watchdog.
“We will challenge this decision. The PTI and Imran Khan cannot be barred no matter how hard they try. Imran Khan had a huge public following. No one should think of sidelining him from mainstream politics,” he added.
He claimed the government was “running away” from elections as it feared defeat at the hands of the PTI, adding the “imported prime minister” will have to get a vote of confidence from the parliament and that will be his last day in the house.
He also accused the incumbent government of running a campaign against expatriate Pakistanis in a bid to label them as non-Pakistanis just because they support the PTI.
He said overseas Pakistanis were outraged by the ECP’s verdict and were now sending more donations than ever.
He pointed out that Article 15 of the Elections Act outlined the process for dissolving a political party. However, he added that the ECP had no authority to take such a step.
He regretted that the ECP was being used as a “tool” by the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM).
He also lamented the fact that the ECP did not seek an explanation from the PTI about the individuals funding the party and declared them to be “non-Pakistanis and foreigners” without conducting a fact-check.
“One of the people included was Romita Shetty, an American. She shares a joint bank account with her husband, Nasir Hussain. But her donation has been declared as prohibited by the ECP,” he said, adding that there were more examples of such discrepancies.
He said the PTI was also being censured over its connection to businessman Arif Naqvi. “I must clarify that Naqvi had no charges against him in 2011-12 when he had donated funds to the party,” he said.
The PTI leader demanded the electoral watchdog also audit the accounts of the PPP, the PML-N, and the JUI-F, adding why the ECP is hesitant to audit the accounts of the three political parties.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2022
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