ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) told the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Tuesday that it needed two more weeks to file the reply against electoral body’s show cause notice in the Prohibited Funding Case. The commission accepted political party’s request — directing it to file reply by September 19.
“We will not be giving more time,” commented Chief Election Commissioner Sikandar Sultan Raja, who heads the five-member bench hearing the case, after accepting the defence side’s request to be granted more time to file the reply. In the case proceedings, defence lawyer Shah Khawar explained to the bench that he could not appear in the last case hearing due to his engagements in the Supreme Court.
The counsel said they needed more time in order to obtain information from PTI overseas chapters and relevant authorities in different countries in connection with ECP’s Prohibited Funding Case verdict related to PTI.
The bench asked Khawar, “How much time did the Prohibited Funding Case take to conclude?” “Around eight years,” the defence lawyer responded.
“So, you need another eight years to file reply,” remarked the CEC, adding that the defence side was being given the final opportunity to file reply in the case and that no more adjournment would be granted after September 19.
In the previous hearing of this case on August 23, ECP sought reply from PTI within two weeks regarding the show cause notice in the Prohibited Funding Case verdict.
On August 2, the ECP finally announced the much-hyped and long-awaited verdict in the Prohibited Funding Case (formerly known as Foreign Funding Case) — around eight years after the case landed in the electoral body in November 2014 — in what came as a huge sigh of relief for the former ruling party that was not found guilty of being a foreign-aided political party — but the commission issued PTI a show cause notice for explaining its position over receiving prohibited funds.
After the verdict was issued, the commission came under massive criticism from the PTI and public circles over alleged discrepancies in the 70-page written order on Prohibited Funding Case.
Scores of overseas Pakistanis appeared on electronic and social media to lambaste the electoral body for naming them as foreign donors, who, according to ECP, sent illegal donations to PTI—in Prohibited Funding Case verdict.
The ECP’s order also contained details of funds received by the PTI from some 34 foreign nationals and 351 foreign-based companies but the funding record provided by ECP in the verdict was strongly disputed by the overseas Pakistanis with several companies that were shown as foreign donor entities were found to be belonging to overseas Pakistanis.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2022
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