PTI foreign funding case: ECP directs scrutiny committee to submit report by Aug 17

ISLAMABAD: In a significant move, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has directed the Scrutiny Committee scrutinising PTI foreign funding since March 2018 to submit its final report by August 17, 2020.

The PTI foreign funding case is one of the longest pending cases, if not the longest, pending with the Election Commission, since November 2014. The directions were given in the detailed June 2, 2020 order of the ECP released here Wednesday.

The order details the complaints of the petitioner and PTI founding member Akbar S Babar regarding the conduct of the Scrutiny Committee, seeking an early conclusion of the scrutiny transparently and in accordance with the ToRs.

The ECP order says that after the submission of the report by the committee on August 17 next, the ECP will decide the issue after the perusal of all the record submitted by parties and collected by the committee from SBP with the assistance and cooperation of the parties and their counsel. The order states that full opportunity will be given to both parties to assist the commission in a meaningful way to reach the credible conclusion. The ECP directs the Scrutiny Committee to submit its final report to the commission within shortest possible time instead of referring applications submitted by the parties to the commission for decision as this ‘situation is causing delay’.

Petitioner Akbar S Babar had raised several objections to the committee’s refusal to share with the petitioner documents submitted by PTI and bank statements acquired from the State Bank of Pakistan under law.

The petitioner had also complained in its application that the Scrutiny Committee had not made any effort to ‘seek details of PTI fund raising and committee has not revealed any effort to seek details of the party fund raising and mode of remittance to Pakistan, PTI bank accounts maintained abroad and the money received in private bank accounts of the ruling party employees.’

And, that the petitioner is a founding member of the party and entitled by law to have access to full accounts of the party but the committee is determined to deny the lawful access and therefore the petitioner cannot be part of an eyewash of a scrutiny.

The petitioner had requested the commission to requisition the entire record and conduct the scrutiny itself or direct the Scrutiny Committee to submit its fact finding report no later than two weeks from the date of the ECP order. The ECP Scrutiny Committee also met Wednesday, however, there was little progress as one member of the committee had recently retired and his replacement is yet to be notified. The next meeting of the Scrutiny Committee was scheduled for July 15, 2020.