A three member bench of Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) headed by Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Sikandar Sultan Raja on Wednesday adjourned the hearing of foreign funding case of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) till Thursday noon.
Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s (PTI) financial expert Najam Shah continued his briefing to the bench and sought adjournment of the foreign funding case. “You had assured completion of your comparison of the funds,” chief election commissioner Sikandar Sultan Raja said, adding that the commission was ready to hear arguments of financial expert.
PTI counsel Anwar Mansoor said that questions were being raised over the PTI funds and pleaded deferment of case’s hearing until high court’s verdict. CEC asked the PTI lawyer how much time PTI’s financial expert required to finish his briefing. He also held that the election commission and the high court have separate jurisdictions, also adding that this case has already been in pending for several years.
This case was tarnishing the PTI’s image, Anwar Mansoor said adding that after consulting financial expert, he would inform the commission about the requirement of further time to complete the briefing by financial expert. “Only five minutes were required to brief about the record, as the bench was already quite well versed about the record,” CEC said. “The election commission won’t keep the matter in further pending. An impression created that the matter was deliberately being kept in pending,” CEC observed and directed the counsel to inform the ECP by Thursday that how much time was required for completion of arguments.
Earlier, PTI’s financial expert Najam Shah told the commission that the scrutiny committee has made an overstatement of 59.7 million in funds. Shah said according to scrutiny committee’s 2012-13 report, PTI had received over Rs 1.19 billion funds. While the State Bank pointed out 19 bank accounts of the PTI. The party had eight central audited accounts in 2012-13. “Do you want to say that the committee was not authorized to write to the state bank,” ECP member Nisar Durrani asked. Answer Mansoor replied that the scrutiny committee had written letter to State Bank by exercising its authority. The PTI was not aware about the accounts, added by the central bank in the party’s record, lawyer said.
PTI’s central finance wing was also unaware about the opening of accounts by the individuals, Anwer Mansoor said adding that the collected amounts were not included in PTI’s audit (report). In the audit report there were details of the accounts of the PTI’s central finance wing, he added.
Later, talking to media founder member of PTI, the petitioner Akbar S Babar said PTI had again sought more time as former ruling party wanted to further drag the case. He said PTI counsel argued that the party was unaware of the opening of the accounts. Who sent the money in those accounts and what punishment was awarded to them. He said Imran Khan was hiding in Peshawar after announcing Jihad. Imran wanted to use Pakhtuns to serve his ulterior motives.