ISLAMABAD: Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) Wednesday expressed concern over slow pace of progress in foreign funding case and directed the scrutiny committee hearing the high-profile case to meet thrice a week to complete the proceedings of the case ‘as early as possible’ but the ECP failed to give any deadline to the Committee regarding the completion of its pending report into the case.

In a meeting, the scrutiny committee briefed the Commission regarding progress into foreign funding case. The electoral body ‘expressed satisfaction over the performance of scrutiny committee in the case so far’ but expressed its concern over slow pace of progress in the case.

The scrutiny committee blamed the respondents for slow progress in the case, saying the “consuls of respondents remain busy in High Courts and give little time to this case.” The ECP directed the committee to meet thrice a week to ensure completion of the case proceedings. The electoral body also directed the respondents to follow the Committee’s instructions in the case.

The Scrutiny Committee is facing a major challenge in the high-profile case that is against three major political parties of the country; Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) and Pakistan People’s Party (PPP)— to fix responsibility against either of these three parties, Business Recorder has learnt.

In the previous report regarding foreign funding case that the scrutiny committee submitted to the ECP, responsibility was not fixed against anyone which was the major reason the electoral body rejected the report, it is learnt.

The ECP then tasked the committee to probe the case thoroughly and fix responsibility if there was concrete evidence of receiving foreign funding against any of the three political parties, it is further learnt.

The committee had submitted its report into the case to ECP on August 27 last year but the ECP rejected this report as incomplete since the report did not fix responsibility of receiving foreign funding on either of the three political parties. The ECP then directed the committee to start afresh its probe 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 considering the complexity of the case, according to a source.

“If allegations of foreign funding are proved against a political party then it becomes an established fact that the said political party was involved in questionable activities—against the interest of Pakistan—that is something very difficult to prove,” said an ECP official.

The official said the term ‘foreign funding’ should not be mistakenly defined as financial contributions from overseas Pakistanis. “All major political parties have overseas Pakistani supporters and well-wishers who support them through donations and other financial contributions. This is not foreign funding. Foreign funding implies that a political party is receiving financial support from a foreign country or entity to serve its interests in Pakistan,” the source said adding that if a political party justifies that it received donations or contributions from overseas Pakistanis through legal channels then it cannot be proceeded against under any law of Pakistan.

Pakistan’s electoral laws allow political parties to receive donations or contributions from individuals but receiving any kind of financial support from foreign governments or entities is prohibited.

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."

The three-member 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.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2021