Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court of Pakistan on Tuesday asked Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) to satisfy the bench on party’s foreign funding as well as audit of its finances.

The top court asked PTI counsel as to whether the party received foreign funding and if yes, then whether the funding was made through an agent and whether it was brought into the knowledge of the chartered accountant auditing the party financials.

The top court also directed Advocate Akram Sheikh, counsel for Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Hanif Abbasi, to seek instructions from his client on formation of commission to probe the matter of foreign funding.

A three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar took up the petition for hearing, filed by Hanif Abbasi, wherein he has sought the disqualification of PTI chief Imran Khan from being member of the National Assembly for ‘concealing’ assets.

During the course of hearing, Advocate Ibrahim Satti, representing Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), submitted opinion as to whether ECP has jurisdiction to hold an investigation if the foreign funding were generated through prohibited sources. He told the court that the PTI had never disclosed foreign funding in its assets.

“ECP has examined the original declaration of assets filed by the respondent party and it was found that the declaration so submitted does not contain source of foreign funds with detail and such respondent were directed to furnish the source of funds with detail as required under the Form I,” the reply stated.

On the issue of jurisdiction, the ECP in its 24-page reply stated that it had determined and decided its jurisdiction in the orders dated October 8, 2015 and May 8, 2017 through judicial pronouncements and had categorically held the ECP was having jurisdiction of probing foreign funding, prohibited funding or foreign aid to a political party.

Satti told the court that the first order had been challenged in Islamabad High Court (IHC) which remanded the case to the ECP to decide question of jurisdiction and locus standi afresh after which the ECP issued a detailed judgment over its jurisdiction. “Under Rule 6 of Political Parties Order 2002, ECP is empowered to confiscate the foreign funding, prohibited funding and aid in favor of the State,” the reply stated.

With respect to question on past and closed transactions, the ECP submitted that past and close transaction was never accepted or applied in the case of fraud, malafide actions, dishonest statement and suppression and concealment of the facts. “Whenever such situation comes to surface, ECP can legally reopen the matter and proceed in accordance with the law,” it stated.