PTI foreign funding case: ECP adjourns hearing till October 10

The bench headed by Chief Election Commission (CEC) Sardar Muhammad Raza Khan examined a report.

ISLAMABAD (Dunya News) – A three-member bench of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Tuesday (October 1) conducted hearing of the foreign funding case against the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) after 18 months.

The bench headed by Chief Election Commission (CEC) Sardar Muhammad Raza Khan examined a report concluded by a special scrutiny committee to probe the matter and adjourned the hearing till October 10.

The bench observed that the scrutiny committee had found details of 23 accounts held by the PTI.

On the four applications filed, the PTI’s counsel took a stance that false speculations on the media were meant to defame the party’s reputation and demanded the ECP to ensure prevention of information leakage.

The party’s counsel further asked the bench to take a stern action on spreading false information about the matter.

“We are talking of the matter tainted with mala fide intention and are not accusing the committee in anyway,” the bench was told.

To this, the CEC responded: “What has happened to you in the last five and a half years for you are complaining about mala fide intention?”

Applicant’s advocate Ahmad Hassan told the bench that the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) had handed over the details of 23 accounts owned by the PTI, and in every meeting, the party had its representative to place forward its stance.

“The PTI’s own members have leaked the information and now they are making excuses to run away from the issue,” he stated.

For scrutiny of foreign funding, the ECP had already issued notices to the concerned parties including the PTI and Akbar S Babar – who had filed the case in November, 2014, after he developed differences with the party.

It is pertinent to mention here that the previous hearing of the case was held in March, 2018.