ISLAMABAD: Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has adjourned till April 18 the Prohibited Funding Case related to Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) after the defence side has moved Islamabad High Court (IHC) against the electoral body in connection with this case.
In the proceedings of the case on Tuesday, former Attorney General for Pakistan (AGP) Anwar Mansoor Khan appeared before a three-member ECP bench headed by Chief Election Commissioner Sikandar Sultan Raja.
The defence counsel informed the bench, the PTI has moved IHC against the show cause notice issued to party chairman and former Prime Minister Imran Khan in the Prohibited Funding Case, and the court has taken up the case for hearing on Friday.
The CEC said the bench gave the defence side the “final opportunity” to file reply in the case but they did not file it. The bench then adjourned the case till April 18.
Last Wednesday, the ECP rejected PTI’s request to cross-examine the members of Scrutiny Committee that probed former ruling party’s finances in Prohibited Funding Case.
A three-member ECP bench, to this effect, issued its verdict which was reserved in December last year, rejecting the PTI’s objections related to Scrutiny Committee.
The PTI had moved the ECP with the request that it wanted to cross-examine the members of the scrutiny panel in Prohibited Funding Case related to PTI.
On August 2, last year, the ECP announced the much-hyped and long-awaited verdict in the Prohibited Funding Case (formerly known as Foreign Funding Case) — around eight years after the case landed in the electoral body in November 2014.
After the verdict was issued, the commission came under massive criticism from the PTI and public circles over alleged discrepancies in the 70-page written order on Prohibited Funding Case.
Scores of overseas Pakistanis appeared on electronic and social media to lambaste the electoral body for naming them as foreign donors, who, according to ECP, sent illegal donations to PTI—in Prohibited Funding Case verdict.
The ECP’s order also contained details of funds received by the PTI from some 34 foreign nationals and 351 foreign-based companies but the funding record provided by ECP in the verdict was strongly disputed by the overseas Pakistanis with several companies that were shown as foreign donor entities were found to be belonging to overseas Pakistanis.
While the ECP announced its verdict in Prohibited Funding Case related to PTI, the similar cases against Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) and Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) continue to remain pending in ECP and the related scrutiny panel has not yet submitted its report to the electoral body regarding these cases yet.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2023