Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Thursday directed the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to wind up the foreign funding case against Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) within a month.
The reserved verdict was issued by IHC judge Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani on applications filed by the PTI seeking detachment of Akbar S Babar, who filed the case in November 2014, and keeping the PTI documents secret.
PTI had challenged the decisions of the electoral body on January 25 and 31. It had pleaded with the court to bar the ECP from sharing the case record with Babar and also stop him from giving arguments related to it.
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PTI had maintained that the ECP had collected the record itself and the complainant should be allowed to argue about the related documents submitted by him.
However, IHC said the role of ECP was important and cannot be curtailed.
Notably, the electoral body’s scrutiny committee, formed in 2019 for auditing party’s funding, had maintained in a report on January 4 that PTI concealed funds worth millions of rupees.
It added that the political party tendered false information to the electoral body.
Reacting to it, PTI leader Fawad Chaudhry asked the ECP to decide on the foreign funding case of PTI, PML-N, and PPP concurrently.
یہ فیصلہ قابل تحسین ہے ہم کہ رہے ہیں پیپلز پارٹی نون لیگ اور تحریک انصاف کے فنڈنگ کیسز کا فیصلہ اکٹھے کر دیں تا کہ لوگوں کو سیاسی جماعتوں کی فنڈنگ کا بہتر ادراک ہو سکے اور پھر جمیعت اور TLP جیسی جماعتوں کی فنڈنگ کے معاملات بھی کھولیں اور مہربانی کریں سالوں نہ لگائیں pic.twitter.com/Sc6heq9Hn4
— Ch Fawad Hussain (@fawadchaudhry) April 14, 2022
“So, the people will have a better understanding of the funding of the political parties,” he said and added that the electoral body should also look into the funding matters of TLP and Jamiat [JUI-F] without spending years.
