ISLAMABAD - The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Tuesday continued hearing of the Foreign Funding Case despite PTI’s latest adjournment motion on its lawyer’s health grounds.
The hearing started with the PTI filing yet another adjournment motion on the plea that its ninth lawyer Mr. Anwar Mansoor Khan was ill and could not attend the proceedings of the case. The CEC asked the junior PTI lawyer if Mr. Anwar Mansoor Khan had indeed traveled abroad as he had pleaded on March 1 while seeking an extended adjournment.
The Junior PTI Lawyer showed ignorance and said he was unaware if the senior PTI lawyer had indeed traveled abroad or not After overruling the PTI adjournment motion, the Petitioner’s lawyer Syed Ahmad Hassan Shah who was assisted by his associate Mr. Badar Iqbal Chaudhery proceeded with his arguments on the latest PTI applications demanding exclusion of the petitioner Akbar S. Babar from the case and seeking secrecy of the documents requisitioned through the State Bank of Pakistan which have already been handed over to the petitioner. Shah read out order after order of the ECP dismissing similar applications and stated that the latest application is yet another attempt to delay the case. He said it is time that PTI should be fined for delaying the case. He read out the portions of the ECP Order dated October 10, 2019 which labelled PTI attempts to delay the case as ‘historic abuse of law.’ The ECP reserved judgment on the latest PTI applications and scheduled the next hearing of the case for March 17 when the merits of the case would be discussed based on comments of two parties on ECP Scrutiny Committee Report shared with them on January 4.
The over seven years Foreign Funding Case is expected to be reserved for judgment after the two parties conclude arguments on the Scrutiny Committee Report.
Talking to media outside the ECP, the petitioner and PTI founding member Akbar S Babar said the case is at its conclusive stage.
He said the situation in the country is alarming as the threat of unrest is growing and instead of acting in a responsible manner, the government is adding fuel to the fire.
He said the sooner case is decided on merit and evidence, the sooner will the present alarming situation will be defused.
Babar said Pakistan is not a Banana Republic where the whims of one individual can be allowed to prevail.
