ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Monday suspended an earlier order directing the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to wrap up the foreign funding case against the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) party within 30 days.
The April 14 ruling was delivered on applications filed by the party to keep its documents secret — after the ECP had earlier rejected its request for confidentiality — and bar petitioner Akbar S. Babar from pursuing the case.
However, Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani had ruled that the ECP’s role cannot be curtailed in any manner.
Subsequently, on April 21, the party filed an intra-court appeal against the ruling, raising objections against the agency, by claiming it was not authorised to decide any case so long as it lacked its full strength.
The party has expressed fear that the case could be used to prevent it from contesting the next general elections.
Today, IHC Chief Justice Athar Minallah and Justice Babar Sattar heard the intra-court petition before suspending the April 14 order.
During the proceedings, Shah Khawar, the counsel for PTI, argued that Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani had used harsh language and phrases such as “face the music” in his order. He said that a single-judge bench did not have the power to pass such an order.
“Technically, this case doesn’t even fall under foreign funding. It falls under prohibited funding,” he contended.
Subsequently, the bench issued notices to 17 political parties and ECP and sought their responses on May 17.
The foreign funding case was filed in November 2014 by Babar, one of the party’s founding members. He had alleged financial irregularities in the party’s accounts, including illegal sources of funding, concealment of bank accounts, money laundering, and using private bank accounts of PTI workers as a front to receive illegal donations from the Middle East.
