Daily Times

The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Friday dismissed a petition of Pakistan Tehreek-e- Insaf (PTI) seeking to bar the Elections Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to share its some record in the foreign funding case with Akber S Baber.

Justice Mohsin Akhter Kayani announced the verdict which was reserved earlier after listening arguments from both sides. The petitioner pleaded that complainant Akber S Baber should be allowed to argue his case based on the record which he had produced.

ECP’s lawyer Khurram Shahzad stated that the scrutiny committee had submitted a final report to the ECP, which was made public. PTI’s counsel Anwar Mansoor Advocate said they had requested the ECP not to share the inquiry report as the ECP’s action was an administrative act. The administrative powers were not judicial in nature, he said.

The ECP, he said, was a constitutional institution responsible to conduct elections in the country. It was an independent department that could set up even election tribunals which have judicial powers. However, the ECP was not itself a court. He said the ECP should limit itself to the inquiry of foreign funding. The ECP had earlier dismissed the record produced by Akber S Baber and now it was taking further action on the documents collected by it from different sources. The ECP could not question Akber S. Baber about these documents. After the arguments, the court had reserved its judgment and later dismissed the case.