ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) has termed as hypothetical the review report of Akbar Sher Babar in Foreign Funding Case, alleging that the report was marked with factual inaccuracies and false assumptions.
During hearing of the case on Tuesday, PTI’s financial expert Najam Shah pointed out that the review report submitted by Babar suggested that PTI submitted photocopies instead of original documents to the Scrutiny Committee.
On the contrary, he said, original financial documents were submitted to the Scrutiny Committee that probed the former ruling party’s finances in Foreign Funding Case.
All the relevant record of PTI’s finances was provided to the probe panel, he added.
PTI counsel and former attorney general for Pakistan (AGP) Anwar Mansoor Khan took on the scrutiny panel for its findings, which, he said, were “far from reality.”
“The Scrutiny Committee worked very hard — we all should recognise that — but its findings are totally wrong — the findings it produced were far from reality,” he remarked.
Babar’s counsel Ahmad Hassan Shah objected to Khan’s remarks. “He (Khan) never appeared before the Scrutiny Committee. Not even once. How can he target the Scrutiny Committee like that,” he questioned.
Heading the three-member bench that heard the case— comprising of Nisar Ahmed Durrani and Shah Muhammad Jatoi— Chief Election Commissioner Sikandar Sultan Raja negated the prosecution side’s objection, saying it was not necessary for the defence lawyer to appear before the Scrutiny Committee.
The legal teams of both the sides were privy to the proceedings of the Scrutiny Committee, he said.
The case was adjourned till today (Wednesday).
Speaking to the media after the case proceedings, Babar said, he has written a letter to Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah to launch a probe in the reports that PTI members received millions of rupees of foreign funding. “Things will be exposed in the coming days. Truth will come out,” he said, adding that the “illegalities” committed by the former ruling party in receiving funds would come to light in the coming days.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2022