ECP rejects scrutiny report of PTI’s foreign funding accounts

ISLAMABAD: In a major development, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has rejected the Scrutiny Committee report on Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s foreign funding accounts, terming it neither complete nor well detailed in all respect.

The ECP ordered the committee to conduct afresh the scrutiny and complete the process in six weeks. However, after this order, one wonders, will the panel be able to continue and complete its job, as it met for the first time today (Monday) while the order was issued on August 27 and hence, three weeks have already been consumed.

The ECP in its order dated August 27, 2020 stated that "the Commission has thoroughly gone through it and came to the conclusion "that the Committee neither scrutinised the record nor evaluated the evidence from the documents".

It goes without saying that the much-awaited order validates the concerns of the petitioner Akbar S Babar, expressed repeatedly regarding the transparency and credibility of the scrutiny process by the committee formed in March 2018 on the order of the Election Commission.

The foreign funding case, filed by Babar, who remained a close confidante of PTI Chairman Imran Khan, way back in November 2014 and alleged financial irregularities in the party funding, which poured in from abroad.