In an important move, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Tuesday resumed the hearing of foreign funding case involving Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and reserved its verdict on the pleas wherein the ruling party requested the Commission to maintain 'secrecy' in the scrutiny of funding details of the party.
A three-member ECP bench comprising Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Justice Sardar Muhammad Raza (retd), and ECP members Justice Altaf Ibrahim Qureshi (retd) (Punjab) and Justice Irshad Qaiser (retd) (Khyber Pakhtunkhwa), conducted hearing on the four applications moved by the PTI requesting the commission to keep the details of PTI's funding mechanism undisclosed publicly on the grounds that 'false' news was being leaked about the PTI funds, which, the ruling party said, was an attempt to malign it.
During the case hearing, Saqlain Haider Awan represented the PTI and Syed Ahmed Hassan Shah represented Akbar S Babar, the petitioner against PTI. After reviewing the PTI's petitions, the ECP bench reserved verdict regarding PTI's applications seeking secrecy in scrutinising its funds and decided to announce the verdict on October 10.
On September 26, the ECP decided to resume hearing of over five-year-old foreign funding case and fixed the case hearing on October 1, issuing notices to the parties to the case. The development surfaces at a time when the CEC and the federal government are entangled in serious differences following the CEC's refusal to administer oath to two newly-appointed ECP members Khalid Mahmood Siddiqui (Sindh) and Munir Ahmad Kakar (Balochistan), citing the violation of the Constitution in the appointment of these two members by the government.
Reports are rife in the federal capital that the PTI government is contemplating upon moving a reference against the CEC while the opposition parties have already started crying foul against the reported move.
In November 2014, Akbar S Babar, one of the "founding" members of the PTI, had moved the ECP accusing the PTI of being a foreign-funded party and seeking action against it in accordance with related constitutional provisions. The case has since been pending and its last hearing was held in March 2018. In the same month last year, the ECP formed a scrutiny committee to scrutinise the funds of PTI and submit its report in a month but the committee is yet to furnish its report.
On June 15 this year, the ECP decided to hear an important case regarding the foreign funding of all the three major political parties; PTI, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and issued notices to the representatives of these parties to appear before the scrutiny committee on June 20. The notices were issued respectively on the petition of PTI's member of National Assembly (MNA) Farrukh Habib against the PML-N and PPP and Akbar Babar's related petition against the PTI. However, there was no headway in this regard and the matter remained pending.
The PTI has repeatedly questioned the ECP's authority to scrutinise its accounts and took the stance before the Supreme Court in a related case in 2017 that the apex court can constitute a commission to probe allegations of foreign funding. Sources in the ECP told Business Recorder that it is very difficult to establish that any political party is foreign funded since the Constitution bars foreign funding from any group or organisation but foreign funding is permissible by individuals to political parties in the Constitution of Pakistan.
"Political parties usually take funds from individuals, not groups or entities. It is therefore very difficult to establish that a political party has received funds from any group, and not an individual, and that it should be proceeded against as per law," said an ECP official.
The section 6 (3) of Political Parties Order 2002 reads, "Any contribution made, directly or indirectly, by any foreign government, multinational or domestically incorporated public or private company, firm, trade or professional association shall be prohibited and the parties may accept contributions and donations only from individuals."
In the light of the relevant electoral laws in Pakistan, foreign funded political parties are not allowed to exist and any such political party be dissolved. The section 15 of Political Parties Order 2002 reads, "Dissolution of a political party- Where the federal government is satisfied that a political party is a foreign-aided party or has been formed or is operating in a manner prejudicial to the sovereignty or integrity of Pakistan or is indulging in terrorism, it shall make such declaration by a notification in the official Gazette-within fifteen days of making a declaration- the federal government shall refer the matter to the Supreme Court whose decision on such reference shall be final-Where the Supreme Court upholds the declaration made against a political party under clause- such party shall stand dissolved forthwith."
The section 4 (1) (f) of the same Order reads "-a political party shall not-be formed, organise, set-up or convened as a foreign-aided political party." In addition, the political parties are required to share with the ECP the details of their assets and liabilities.
The section 13 of Political Parties Order 2002 states, "Information about the sources of party's fund- Every political party shall, in such manner and in such form as may be prescribed or specified by the Chief Election Commissioner, submit to the Election Commission, within sixty days from the close of each financial year, a consolidated statement of accounts of the party audited by a Chartered Accountant containing- (a) annual income and expenses; (b) sources of its funds; and (c) assets and liabilities-The statement-shall be accompanied by a certificate signed by the party leader stating that- (a) no funds from any source prohibited under this Order were received by the party; and (b) the statement contains an accurate financial position of the party."
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