ECP adjourns foreign funding case till March 27

ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Tuesday adjourned the hearing of the foreign funding case against Pakistan Muslim League- Nawaz (PML-N) and Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) till March 27 after the PML-N representative in the case did not appear before the ECP bench.

Talking to media after the hearing, Latif Khosa said that there was no foreign funding of PPP, claiming that the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) has just filed the pleas in retaliation. A three-member ECP bench headed by Punjab member Altaf Qureshi conducted the proceedings. PPP counsel Sardar Latif Khosa and PTI’s counsel Faisal Chaudhry appeared before the ECP.

The PPP lawyer said that they had submitted a written reply on January 15 in the case. The ECP member asked the PPP counsel to also provide copies of the reply to the PTI counsel.

Earlier the ECP had sought a written reply from the PML-N on February 27 in the foreign funding case and adjourned the hearing till March 6.The four-member ECP bench headed by Chief Election commissioner Sardar Raza Muhammad conducted the hearing in foreign funding case on Tuesday.

The PML-N counsel Jahangir could not appear while his junior lawyer requested for more time for submission of reply. However, the complainant’s counsel opposing the request said that written reply should be essential. On which ECP directed the lawyer to submit the reply at any cost.

Talking to the media after the hearing, Farukh Habib said that PML-N was attempting to prolong the case by demanding new dates on each hearing. He alleged that PML-N was used for money laundering.