EDITORIAL: The inordinate delay in the PTI foreign funding case disposal may have been seen by some as the result of non-seriousness on the part of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), but the reality turns out to be quite different. It may be recalled that acting on the petition of an estranged founding member of the ruling party, Akbar S Babar, in March of 2018 the ECP had formed a scrutiny committee headed by the director general of its law section. It was to complete audit of PTI's accounts within a month's time, which kept stretching until June of this year when the committee was told to submit its report by no later than August 17. The committee finally came up with a shoddy report that has been rejected by the ECP, noting that "the Scrutiny Committee on the basis of documents provided by both the parties and collected from the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) has neither scrutinized the record nor evaluated the evidence from the documents and failed to form definite opinion." In other words, its effort is of no use.
Expressing the lament that its directions were not followed in strict sense in spite of lapse of more than 28/29 months, the ECP has now ordered the committee to conduct fresh scrutiny and complete its work as soon as possible but not later than six weeks. Two important points emerge from this sordid episode. First, that contrary to some suspicions the government has not been trying to influence the electoral body in any way; otherwise, it would have accepted the present report and not called for a fresh exercise. Secondly, those in charge of its legal department lack the competence to conduct proper scrutiny. Despite a searing reprimand it received from its higher authority, the committee is still at a loss to find the way forward. According to a report, its meeting held on Monday ended on an inconclusive note. At this rate the case can be expected to drag on until the cows come home.
This though is not the only issue attracting unwelcome attention to the ECP. The last two general elections culminated in endless controversies involving procedural/technical hitches. Although its chairman is appointed by the government and leader of the opposition by mutual consent, not much consideration seems to be given to the induction of middle level staff. The present instance amply shows that those tasked with the inquiry and analysis lacked the credentials or the intention to do a professional job. The ECP is an autonomous constitutional body responsible for organizing and holding elections to the assemblies as well as local governments. It is about time it put its house in order. All must be done that it takes to create a level-playing field for the political parties, and to ensure the people have a fair chance to elect their representatives.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2020