'Electoral laws allow foreign funding from individuals but bar from groups'

Though the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) continues to hear foreign funding case involving all three major political parties of the country, on account of apparent complexities in the electoral laws, proving allegations against any look rather difficult.

Ironically, Pakistan's existing electoral laws bar foreign funding from any group or organisation but foreign funding is permissible by individuals to political parties.

"Political parties usually take funds from individuals, not groups or entities. It is therefore very difficult to establish that a political party has received funds from any group, and not an individual, and that it should be proceeded against as per law," an ECP official told Business Recorder on condition of anonymity.

Section 6 (3) of Political Parties Order 2002 reads, "Any contribution made, directly or indirectly, by any foreign government, multi-national or domestically incorporated public or private company, firm, trade or professional association shall be prohibited and the parties may accept contributions and donations only from individuals."

A three-member Scrutiny Committee of the ECP is hearing the all important foreign funding case related to Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and the Pakistan People's Party (PPP).

The Scrutiny Committee is headed by ECP's Director General (Law) Muhammad Arshad as its chairman and includes DG (Audit) Defence Services Masood Akhtar Sherwani, and Controller Accounts Air Force Muhammad Faheem as its members.

The ECP, on November 21, 2019, had decided to accept the request of opposition parties to resume the proceedings of foreign funding case on a daily basis and fixed November 26 as the date to commence proceedings of the case, after a gap of 20 months.

Before the November 26 hearing, the ECP last held regular hearing of foreign funding case in March 2018 when the Scrutiny Committee was formed to scrutinise the PTI funds.

The PTI also requested the ECP that the foreign funding case related to the PML-N and the PPP should also be heard by the ECP.

The commission accepted this demand and also commenced proceedings of foreign funding case related to the PML-N and the PPP from November 26.

In November 2014, Akbar Sher Babar, one of the founding members of the PTI, had moved the ECP, accusing the PTI of being a foreign-funded party and seeking action against it in accordance with related constitutional provisions.

The PTI's Member National Assembly (MNA), Farrukh Habib, had moved ECP with the petition to have the funding details of the PML-N and PPP scrutinised, accusing both opposition parties of being foreign-funded

Shah Khawar is PTI's counsel in the case, whereas Ahmad Hassan represents Akbar Babar. The PML-N is represented by Jahangir Jadoon, and the PPP is represented by Shehbaz Khosa.