ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan will on Wednesday ask the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf to submit its arguments on Akbar S Babar’s appeal on the issue of foreign funding under the Political Parties Order 2002.
The commission will hear the case again after several months.
According to the cause list issued by the media wing of the commission, a three-member bench headed by Chief Election Commissioner Sikandar Sultan Raja should re-hear the petition filed by the former central information secretary of PTI after issuing a show cause notice to the party. will Chairman Imran Khan last year…
The commission issued its verdict on August 2, 2022, documenting financial fraud and illegal funding of over $7 million, and as required by law, issued a show-cause notice to PTI in August 2022. What was done to justify why no further legal action should be taken? Action was taken against him for serious financial irregularities.
However, instead of responding to the show cause notice, PTI filed a fresh application seeking cross-examination of key witnesses. The fresh demand for a cross-examination is in stark contrast to the PTI’s stated stand during the eight years of the case, claiming that the ECP is not a “court of law” and the proceedings can only be investigative and adversarial.
“The Commission will issue its order on the application filed by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf for cross-examination of those who appeared before the Commission during the hearing of the prohibited foreign funding case (which was filed by Babar in November). . . 2014),” a senior Commission official told JEE News.
He pointed out that earlier the PTI lawyers were opposing the cross-examination and now wanted to opt for it and hence they had filed the petition before the bench a few months back.
Reacting to the petition, Akbar S. Babar, while talking to the media, alleged that it was another desperate attempt by the PTI to delay the matter further, when what was required of them was The party had to respond to the months-long show cause. First.
The commission had issued its verdict in the prohibited foreign funding case on August 2 last year and unanimously held that PTI had indeed received prohibited funding. He then issued a notice to the party asking why the funds should not be confiscated.
After lengthy hearings and investigation of banking records, the commission found that the PTI received funds from prohibited sources: the party received funds from 34 foreign nationals and 351 foreign companies. He took ownership of eight accounts, kept 13 hidden and failed to mention three of them.
Accordingly, a notice was issued to PTI to explain why the funds should not be confiscated as Form 1 submitted by party chairman Imran Khan was found to be grossly incorrect.
The verdict said the party “knowingly and knowingly” received funding from Wootton Cricket Limited, run by business tycoon Arif Naqvi. The party was the ‘willing recipient’ of $2,121,500 worth of contraband.
Additionally, the commission said the party had ‘knowingly and knowingly’ used Bristol Engineering Services (a UAE company), E-Planet Trustees (a Cayman Islands private registered company), SS Marketing Manchester ( (a UK-based company) also received donations. private company), PTI USA LLC-6160, and PTI USA LLC-5975, which were ‘prohibited and affected in violation of Pakistani laws’.
Apart from this, the Commission has also fixed 5 cases against Imran, Secretary General Asad Umar and Senior Vice President Fawad Chaudhry for insulting the Commission and the Chief Election Commissioner on March 28.
Earlier, on March 7, the commission had issued a bailable arrest warrant for PTI chairman and vice-president Fawad Chaudhry in a contempt of court case against Chief Election Commissioner Sikandar Sultan Raja, alleging ‘deliberate adjournment of the case’. Demanding, is tantamount to making a mockery of the law’. . However, he was suspended by the Lahore High Court on March 13.
A 4-member bench of the commission headed by Nisar Ahmed Durrani, a member of the commission from Sindh, heard the case and issued an order to issue an arrest warrant for Imran and directed him to submit two surety bonds of 50,000 rupees each. The Inspector General of Police Islamabad was directed to execute the warrant by March 14.
Last year, the commission had issued notices to PTI chairman Asad Umar and Fawad Chaudhry for using abusive language against the commission and the chief election commissioner. Contempt of court notices were also issued against Chief Election Commissioner especially Imran and Fawad.
Reacting to this development, Fawad termed the ECP’s order as an insult to the orders of the Lahore High Court and announced to summon the commission in the High Court. However, these days, the hearing of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz intra-party election case, which was earlier delisted a day before the hearing on March 13, has not been fixed.
Earlier, on January 12, the commission had given the ruling party more time till March 14 to do the necessary work, as the bench headed by the CEC had given it two months. At the start of the hearing, PMLN counsel Ahsan Jahangir told the bench that the intra-party elections could not be held due to the engagement of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif (party president), who has been holding multiple responsibilities since then. To be the premier.
The bench had observed why the electoral symbol allotted to the party should not be withdrawn for non-compliance with the statutory requirement. The Chief Election Commissioner even remarked that a person who is too busy to hold an intra-party election should not be the party president.
It should be noted that PMLN’s intra-party elections were scheduled to be held on March 22 last year, but on the request of the party, the Commission extended the date and allowed it to hold the latest exercise till May 14 and submit the relevant certificates till May 21. was , but the PMLN failed to conduct the election exercise.
After issuing a final show cause notice to Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif and PMLN Secretary General Ahsan Iqbal in November 2022, the bench was assured that intra-party elections would be held by the end of the year. In this regard, the party has been given another deadline of January 5, otherwise it will lose its electoral symbol.
Section 208 of the Elections Act, 2017 obliges political parties to elect office bearers from time to time in accordance with their respective constitutions at the federal, provincial and local levels wherever applicable.
