PTI funding case enters final phase at ECP

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) 2014 foreign funding case at the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has apparently entered the final phase, as the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) is in the process of sharing funding details with it, having received from banks across Pakistan.

The ECP had written to the SBP on July 03 this year and sought the information under Article 220 of the Constitution. The State Bank’s Banking Policy and Regulations Department, Karachi, has sought the funding details from banks.

A petition was filed by one Akbar S Babar, former central leader of PTI against the party's foreign funding. All the scheduled banks of Pakistan were instructed by the SBP, in a letter, written to them on July 12, 2018, to produce complete details of PTI foreign funding for the period 2009 to 2013. The details have been sought in a letter addressed to presidents and chief executive officers of all banks in Pakistan.

The details sought include are divided in three categories: a list of all PTI bank accounts maintained anywhere in Pakistan with data-wise details of transactions; country-wide list of all fund transferred to PTI accounts from abroad during this period, separately from each year, including names/particulars of each remitter.

And, lastly monthly bank statements of all the accounts maintained/operated by PTI in Pakistan and abroad for each financial year i.e. 2009 to 2013. The SBP had given banks on or before July 16 for submission of PTI financial details to the Election Commission with intimation to the SBP. Needless to say the SBP letter to all banks in Pakistan is in compliance with the Election Commission letter, written by the Director General Law, Muhammad Arshad, seeking PTI foreign funding details after failing to acquire the same from PTI despite having given it ample time.

The director general, law heads a three-member Scrutiny Committee constituted in April this year with a mandate to complete scrutiny of PTI foreign funding in one month. However, the committee’s mandate had to be extended by two months as PTI continued to stall its repeated demands to submit ten financial instruments including bank statements and details of all the bank accounts held by the party inside Pakistan and abroad. “It is quite obvious that the committee needs time to look into documents, deliberate on them and then come up with its findings for submission to the Election Commission,” a source privy to the development told The News.