ECP Accepts Opposition Parties’ Plea For Daily Basis Hearing Of Foreign Funding Case

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(@fidahassanain)

ECP accepts opposition parties’ plea for daily basis hearing of foreign Funding case

 

Two ECP members accepted the plea moved by the opposition parties regarding foreign funding case against ruling PTI.

ISLAMABAD: (Urdu Point/Pakistan Point News-Nov 21st, 2019) The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has accepted opposition’s plea about hearing of foreign funding case against Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI_on daily basis.

The Opposition parties through their petition have asked the ECP to take up the matter of foreign funding case against PTI on daily basis from Nov 26 onwards.

According to the details, two members of the ECP presided over the hearing and accepted the application as Chief Election Commission (CEC) Sardar Muhammad Raza Khan was not available at office.

In their plea, the opposition parties said that PTI had been pending with the ECP for the past five years, while all relevant documents were available for proceedings.

“We request for daily basis hearing of the case and be decided at the earliest during the term of Chief Election Commissioner,” the opposition parties said in their plea. They said.

Rehbar Committee’s convener Akram Khan Durrani of the JUI-F, PPP-Parliamentarians secretary general Farhatullah Babar, PPP secretary general Nayyar Hussain Bukhari, PML-N secretary general Ahsan Iqbal, Mian Iftikhar Hussain of the Awami National Party, Mohammad Shafiq Pasroori of the Markazi Jamiat Ahle Hadith, Usman Kakar of the Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party and Tahir Bizenjo of the National Party signed the application that was addressed to the CEC.

Yesterday, talking to media outside the Election Commission Office, the opposition's Rehbar Committee demanded ECP to hear case regarding scrutiny of ruling Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf's (PTI) foreign funds.

Akbar S. Babar, one of the founding members of PTI, had moved the petition before the ECP in 2014 and alleged that around $3 million weere collected by the party through its two offshore companies and that money was sent through illegal hundi channels from middle East to the accounts of various PTI leaders. The PTI, he further alleged, concealed foreign accounts and the details of collected funds from the annual audit reports submittted to the ECP.

In October, the ECP rejected four appliations moved by PTI seeking secrecy regarding the scrutiny of its foreign funding sources. Last year in March, a scrutiny committee was made to complete an audit of PTI's funding sources in one month. However, its mandate was later extended for an indefinite period.

On Wednesday Rehbar Committee comprising JUI-F leader Akram Durrani, PML-N secretary general Ahsan Iqbal, PPP stalwart Farhatullah Babar and Nayyar Bukhari took part in the meeting as well as the protest that followed. "We must demand that the case should be heard on daily basis to avoid delay," said Akram Durani, addinng that "once the case is concluded, neither PTI nor the current government would remain power,". He went on to say that all parties were conocerned assa to why this case was pending. "There are some cases which are heard on daily basis and NAB calls us three times a week but the delay in this case is beyond our understanding," he further said. They also urged the media to focus PTI's foreign funding case on daily basis. They expressed concerns that the case of PTI's foreign funding has been pending for last five years and now a fresh petition was being moved for immediate hearinig of the case. Ahsan Iqbal said that it was the biggest corruption scandal in Pakistan's politics. He demanded that the cases against leadership of his party should be heart in open trials. Chief Election Commissioner, however, take up this matter of foreign funding and dispose it off during his tenure, because it was very important case, he added.

Fida Hussnain

Fida Hussnain is a lahore based journalist. He writes on politics, religion, social issues and climate change. He is also a research fellow at University of Gujrat.