ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Tuesday rejected a petition filed by PTI seeking early disposal of the ‘foreign funding case’, in which the party has challenged the Election Commission of Pakistan’s (ECP) jurisdiction to order examination of audited accounts.

The application for early hearing of the case was moved before a division bench comprising Justice Noorul Haq N Qureshi and Justice Aamer Farooq by PTI’s counsel.

When the counsel, Saqlain Haider, submitted application for early hearing, the court inquired about the urgency in the matter, especially when the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) is not functional these days.

Subsequently, the court while dismissing the application directed the counsel to file a fresh application after the ECP becomes functional.

Akbar Sher Babar, an estranged PTI founding member filed a petition in the Election Commission of Pakistan seeking details of foreign funding to PTI.

Akbar S. Babar had developed differences with the party chief Imran Khan over ‘internal corruption’ and alleged violations of laws relating to its accounts.

Baber had sought account details of money transferred from abroad including the US, the UK, Canada, Australia and UAE to the PTI accounts or to the accounts of the party’s employees since July 2010 to date.

The ECP in its decision ordered scrutiny of the account. The decision was challenged by the PTI through his counsel Anwar Mansoor Khan.

In his petition, Imran Khan said that the ECP did not have authority to adjudicate the matter of disputed facts and complaints raised under the Political Parties Order (PPO) 2002.

In the petition, he requested the court to declare that the accounts submitted by the petitioner are past and closed transactions and Babar has no locus standi to approach the ECP under Article 6 of the PPO, 2002.

Babar’s counsel, Syed Ahmed Hasan Shah, had argued that the ECP was the only body to look into the matter of foreign funding.

In response to the arguments that the ECP had no jurisdiction to order examination of past and closed transactions on a private complainant, Shah said that the transactions were not past and closed until the next elections and could be investigated.

Published in Dawn, June 22th, 2016