ISLAMABAD - The ECP Scrutiny of PTI foreign funding case was again derailed on Tuesday as PTI filed yet another application against the petitioner and the party founding member Akbar S. Babar for talking to the media on the scrutiny process.
In the application, PTI alleged that Babar had passed disparaging remarks about the working of the Scrutiny Committee before the media by allegedly stating that he does not expect justice from the Committee.
The sources in ECP told The Nation that the PTI had attached a story of Daily Nation as well as a television interview to support their allegations.
The petitioners lawyer Syed Ahmad Hassan Shah took strong exception to yet another application filed by PTI to delay the proceedings of the Committee. He said that four similar applications were rejected by the ECP in its judgment of October 10, 2019 terming PTI tactics as “historical abuse of law” to delay the case.
Syed Ahmad Hassan Shah read out excerpts of Committee record whereby PTI had accused the Committee of bias and collusion with the petitioner and yet no action was initiated by the Committee nor taken note of.
ECP scrutiny of foreign funding case derails
Similarly, Hassan Shah read a detailed retort by the PTI Central Finance Secretary SardarAzhar Tariq Khan to a news story in which he had alleged that “It is the Election Commission which has an apparent bias and is discriminating against the PTI by not calling for accounts despite the categorical directions of the Supreme Court of Pakistan.”
He further stated that despite all odds PTI has cooperated and contested the proceedings and placed all the true and correct facts and documents before the Scrutiny Committee, and will continue to do so notwithstanding the unlawful manner the exercise of scrutiny is being conducted in concert with the opponents.
The petitioner’s lawyer also read out Scrutiny Committee record on how PTI had cast aspersions on an auditor who was replaced under PTI pressure by stating from the record that “one of the members of the Committee namely Muhammad Faheem is always on the lookout for admonishing the Respondents, and that the “said member (stated) that with rounds of litigation being over legal aspects of the case was done and now only scrutiny of accounts was left to be undertaken.”
The petitioner’s lawyer stated that despite such serious accusations by PTI, no notice was taken by the Committee.
He once again demanded that the petitioner is being kept in a blind as neither documents submitted by PTI have been shared with the petitioner nor the 23 bank statements revealed on State Bank of Pakistan instructions.