Prohibited funding case verdict.

Info minister says PTI didn’t declare its 16 bank accounts n FIA tasked to investigate in the light of ECP verdict
n Nothing will be done through backdoor channels.

ISLAMABAD    -  Minister for Informa­tion and Broadcasting Marriyum Aurangzeb on Thursday announced that the government will submit a declaration to the Supreme Court against the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) in the foreign funding case.

“The declaration against PTI will be pro­duced in the next meet­ing of the federal cab­inet wherein it will be decided as to when the declaration should be submitted to the top court,” the minister said at a news briefing held here on Thursday after the cabinet meeting.

The federal minister said that the Ministry of Law had been given three days to come up with its observations on the declaration. Mar­riyum also announced that the Federal Inves­tigation Agency (FIA) will investigate the case in light of the verdict of the Election Commission of Pa­kistan (ECP). The minister told media persons that the FIA has initiated an investi­gation into the case in light of the verdict of the ECP. She reminded the participants of the presser that the previ­ous ruling party did not de­clare its 16 bank accounts. “In the ECP verdict, the PTI has effectively declared a for­eign-funded party,” she said and added that the cabinet was briefed about the mat­ter under the Political Party Order of 2002 and Election Act 2017. Marriyum went on to say that the probe will be carried out by experts well-versed in the legal and in­vestigative areas. “The oth­er matter in the case is about the fake oath-taking state­ment,” the PML-N leader added. According to her, the electoral watchdog’s find­ings weren’t a matter of po­litical rivalry but about the law of the land. On Tuesday, the top electoral authority had announced its ruling in the long-awaited case of the PTI’s prohibited funding and ruled that the party did in­deed receive illegal funding while issuing a notice to the party asking why the funds should not be confiscated. She stated that the case was extremely important be­cause it was now proven that PTI had 16 undeclared ac­counts. The party took own­ership of only 8 accounts out of 26, she added. “The mon­ey kept coming in but it was not declared,” she pointed out, adding that the PTI took 51 adjournments during the proceedings of the prohibit­ed funding case over the pe­riod of eight years and re­ceived funding from 351 foreign companies which she said was a crime under Paki­stan’s law.