ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) on Monday denied any financial wrongdoing in receiving donations from overseas Pakistanis — in the interim reply filed with the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) in the prohibited funding case — as the electoral body asked the political party to submit detailed reply in seven weeks.

In the case proceedings, Shah Khawar, the defence lawyer, sought eight weeks to file the detailed reply.

He said the relevant record has been obtained from PTI overseas chapters on the basis of which interim reply has been filed.

“The record is as old as 10 years obtained from different countries. The ECP in the prohibited funding case report declared several overseas Pakistanis as foreign nationals,” the counsel deplored.

“Even the PTI US (United States) chapter has been listed as a foreign company by the ECP,” he further deplored.

Chief Election Commissioner Sikandar Sultan Raja replied that any company that was registered in the US would be categorised as a foreign company.

“If you have any objection to the ECP verdict in (prohibited funding case), you can challenge this decision (in superior judiciary),” the CEC said, heading the five-member bench that heard the case, comprising of Nisar Durrani, Shah Muhammad Jatoi, Babar Bharwana and former Justice Ikramullah Khan.

The CEC said that the bench could rectify if there was any mistake in the ECP verdict on prohibited funding case.

“But dragging this case—seeking adjournments, on one pretext or another, for weeks—caused this cause to linger for eight long years,” the CEC remarked.

“Where eight years have gone past—two more months make no big deal,” the defence lawyer responded, seeking adjournment of the case for eight weeks.

He maintained that the PTI committed no illegality in receiving donations/financial contributions from overseas Pakistanis and all of its accounts were duly audited by the reputed firms.

The bench asked the defence side to file reply in seven weeks (till November 7) and adjourned the case till then.

During previous hearing of this case on September 6, PTI told the ECP that it needed two more weeks to reply to the electoral body’s show cause notice in the Prohibited Funding Case. The commission accepted the political party’s request, directing it to file reply by September 19.

Before that, in the hearing of this case on August 23, the ECP sought reply from PTI within two weeks regarding the show cause notice in the prohibited funding case verdict.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022