Evidence provided by three political parties: Foreign funding case heading to its conclusion

The much-hyped foreign funding case is finally heading to its conclusion as the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) is expected to reserve verdict in the case with the expected completion of the scrutiny of the evidence provided by the three political parties.

All the three political parties - the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and Pakistan People's Party (PPP) - have responded to the ECP's queries regarding the evidence they submitted in the foreign funding case, Business Recorder has learnt.

"The responses of all the parties to the case have been received. The scrutiny process would now expectedly be completed in the next few days, and the related judgment would be reserved. This may take next few weeks," said an ECP source, on condition of anonymity.

"The verdict would be reserved but it's the discretion of the ECP to decide when to announce its verdict and make it public, accordingly," the source said.

However, the possibility that any political party would be found guilty of foreign funding appears low since it is very difficult to establish the case of foreign funding against a political party, the official said.

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 the law," the source said.

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 the PTI, the PML-N, and the 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.