ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Monday directed the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) to submit complete account details till September 18 in foreign funding case.
A five-member bench of the election watchdog headed by Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Justice (r) Sardar Raza Khan heard the case in Islamabad.
The CEC expressed annoyance at the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) for once again failing to submit its funding details before the election watchdog in the foreign funding case.
“You had been directed to provide the details today…[but] you have been wasting our time for four years,” said the CEC.
The PTI counsel asked for two more weeks to submit the party’s funding details, to which the CEC responded, “What should we infer from your repeated delays?”
The PTI counsel informed the ECP that the Islamabad High Court has observed that a party’s funding details cannot be shared with other parties. The CEC responded that first the party should share with the ECP its funding details and then worry about it being shared with others.
The CEC also expressed displeasure at the constant changing of lawyers by the PTI throughout the case.
The five-member bench, headed by the CEC, then reserved its decision on the PTI’s failure to submit details.
Hearing PTI founding member Akbar S. Babar’s petition on September 7, the ECP had given PTI the ‘last chance’ to submit its funding details.
In 2014, Babar filed a petition in the ECP seeking the disqualification of PTI Chairman Imran Khan for allegedly obtaining funds from illegal sources and discrepancies in the party’s accounts.
He also claimed that funds worth $3 million were collected by the PTI chief, transferred from illegal channels from the Middle East to bank accounts of PTI members.
