ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Thursday rejected four applications filed by the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) seeking secrecy during the scrutiny of its foreign funding sources.
A three-judge bench, headed by Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Justice retired Sardar Mohammad Raza, also instructed the scrutiny committee to continue its work and instructed PTI representatives to appear before the committee on Oct 14.
Former PTI member and petitioner Akbar S. Babar had filed the foreign funding case before the ECP in 2014, alleging that nearly $3 million in illegal foreign funds were collected through two offshore companies, and that money was sent through illegal ‘hundi’ channels from the Middle East to accounts of PTI employees.
He has also alleged that the foreign accounts used to collect funds were concealed from the annual audit reports submitted to the ECP.
In the previous hearing on Oct 1, the commission had reserved its verdict PTI’s applications after listening to the arguments of the various parties to the case.
Following the announcement of the verdict, Babar said that the process of the scrutiny of PTI’s funding would be brought to its logical conclusion. He said that the funding case against PTI would “reveal the true facts to people” and clarified that he “did not have any personal enmity with Prime Minister Imran Khan”.
