Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) reactivated on Tuesday its ‘political finance wing’, which was initially set up three years ago to investigate the assets of political parties and elected representatives including the Panama Papers with a view to eliminating corruption in politics.

The political finance wing will be supported by the help of investigative departments including FBR, NAB, FIA with the provision of supporting staff while effective measures are being taken to give protection to the Finance Wing in this regard.

Sources in the commission said it was decided to reactivate the political finance wing again after the Panama leaks in a high profile meeting of the Election Commission of Pakistan. Now, the ECP handed over the task to its director for public relations, Altaf Khan till the appointment of a permanent director.

According to sources, at the start, the political finance wing was run by a director but apparently the director did not take any measures to activate this nor did the EC give it much attention. So after a few months the director resigned. It is worth mentioning here that the political finance wing will probe into claims made by Panama Papers about Pakistani politicians including Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s family and inspect assets of leaders. According to sources, the political finance wing is being given the task of probing references received by ECP.