- The PTI’s reluctance sends wrong signals
The decision of the Election Commission of Pakistan to hold daily hearings in the PTI foreign funding case is laudable, and its decision to take up the cases of foreign funding received by the PPP and PML-N appear only fair. If individual candidates are expected to show obedience to the ECP’s code of conduct, collections of candidates in parties should be expected to account for any monies they might receive, if the money comes from abroad, there is all the more reason to explain, because that is a classical method by which foreign intelligence agencies transfer money to agents of influence. In view of the dim view taken by the judiciary even of dual nationals, any party receiving funds from abroad should expect to have to account for donations from abroad.
With that in mind, it seems odd that the PTI should have put so much effort into delaying the current case. It is even odder that the PTI has placed itself in the forefront of the fight against corruption, and the sort of accusations of corruption that it is laid open to, would go away if the cases were dealt with, and no wrongdoing proven against the ruling party. The PTI’s reluctance to let the case go ahead indicates a guilty conscience, either about poor accounting or dubious donors, which might cause the party serious embarrassment if made public. While the PM has assured jittery Cabinet colleagues that auditors have seen the accounts and the party has nothing to worry about, the possibility of a mix-up of donations for the Shaukat Khanum Memorial Trust cancer hospital and for the PTI will only be ruled out if the PTI shows transparency. PM’s Information Special Assistant Firdous Ashiq Awan was being fanciful when she accused the opposition of pressurising the ECP.
Instead of looking at the ECP hearings as a challenge, the PTI should look on them as an opportunity, if of course it has nothing to hide. This is also an opportunity to mend fences with the ECP, with which it has such problems as fillings its vacancies. It can also play tit-for-tat with other parties on the issue.
