Daily Times

Perhaps the so-called foreign funding case, which is all the rage right now, could have been titled better. The fine print reveals that it is more a case of prohibited funding under Article-6(3) of the Political Parties Order (PPO) 2002, the maximum punishment for which is confiscation of the prohibited proceeds and nothing more. Also, matters pertaining to foreign funding do not fall within the jurisdiction of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) at least as far as such probes are concerned. According to Article-17(2) of the 1973 Constitution of Pakistan, the federal government is mandated with making references on foreign funding and forwarding them to the Supreme Court within 15 days, which then decides on them.

It seems, then, that in their haste to cobble together an alliance and pressure the government into leaving the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) didn’t do its homework properly. That have, in effect, tried to create an issue when there are no grounds for one to exist. PPO 2002 Article-13 requires all political parties to provide details of income and expenditures, their sources, and all assets and liabilities. And Pakistan Tehreek e Insaf (PTI) has indeed duly submitted a notarised list of more than 40,000 donors. Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) on the other hand have not yet submitted their funding records to the election commission’s scrutiny committee despite repeated reminders.

It is time for PDM to go back to the drawing board so all opposition parties can realign their strategies. Lately a number of cleavages have emerged within the alliance, which the press has been quick to put the spotlight on, and now with the foreign funding case they seem to be stretching their luck. Hopefully the matter will reach a logical, and legal, conclusion sooner rather than later. All parties must be made to fall in line with the law of the land and rather than point fingers at each other, our leading politicians and political parties should take the lead in providing proof that they are as clean as they claim.