ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) Tuesday rejected the request of the ruling party - Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) seeking adjournment in the foreign funding case and took exception to the absence of the PTIs’ counsels in the case proceedings.

A three-member ECP bench led by Chief Election Commissioner Sikandar Sultan Raja and comprising of ECP Members Nisar Ahmed Durrani and Shah Muhammad Jatoi heard the case.

The bench expressed displeasure when informed that PTI’s two main counsels; former attorney general for Pakistan (AGP) Anwar Mansoor Khan and Shah Khawar did not show up at the case proceedings.

Instead, an associate counsel represented the defence side.

He informed the bench that former AGP landed in Islamabad from Karachi to appear before the ECP bench in Foreign Funding Case. But, the associate counsel said, the ex-AGP was suffering from high fever and could not attend Tuesday’s proceedings. The associate lawyer sought adjournment in the case due to the unavailability of the two counsels.

“You seek adjournments every now and then—this case has been pending for over seven years and it would keep lingering if things go like that—this will not work — Anwar Mansoor informed us in the last hearing of the case that he was going abroad and sought adjournment—he did not go abroad and was in Karachi,” remarked the CEC addressing the defence lawyer.

The applicant and defence sides completed arguments on the PTI’s request moved before ECP bench in the last hearing to remove Akbar Sher Babar, the main petitioner in the case against PTI, from the case proceedings.

The defence side took the stance that Babar was ‘biased’ against PTI and held ‘grudges’ against the ruling party, requesting the electoral body to detach him from the case.

Babar’s lawyer Ahmad Hassan contested the defence’s claim, saying Babar was the main petitioner in the case and he could not be removed from the proceedings. “They (PTI) are using delaying tactics on one pretext or the other. After seven years, the defence side has woken up to discover that Akbar S. Babar is biased against PTI. These are delaying tactics to escape from accountability,” he said.

Later, the case was adjourned till tomorrow (Thursday).

Speaking to the media after the case, Babar said, PTI received illegal funding of $ 7.02 million from foreign donors including an India citizen. The details of illegal foreign funding received by PTI are part of State Bank of Pakistan’s (SBP’s) record which the Scrutiny Committee concealed for four years, Babar alleged.

“The way this case is going on now—we are satisfied,” he said.

State Information Minister Farrukh Habib demanded of ECP to ensure the completion of the Scrutiny Committee’s report related to Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) and Pakistan People’s Party (PPP). The PTI, he said, submitted its entire record of funding in the Foreign Funding Case. “The onus is now on these two parties (PML-N and PPP) to come clean like we did. We have been requesting the ECP to ensure that probes related to these two parties should be completed at the earliest—the same way the Scrutiny Committee completed its investigation related to PTI,” Habib said.

He alleged that PPP received funding from prohibited foreign sources worth over Rs 600 million.

Marriyum Aurangzeb from PML-N said PTI sought adjournment in 30 of 75 proceedings in Foreign Funding Case and moved more than 20 applications to keep the case lingering.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022