ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaf (PTI) on Wednesday got a relief in party funds case as the Islamabad High Court (IHC) referred the matter back to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) with the directive to revisit its earlier order.

The ECP on Oct 8, 2015 asked the party to submit a detailed record of its source of funding after a disgruntled founding member of the PTI, Akbar S Babar, alleged that the party had received foreign funding through illegal means.

The PTI chairman, Imran Khan, however challenged the ECP’s order before the IHC saying that the commission lacked jurisdiction to re-open past and closed transactions that too on a petition filed by a person who has no locus standi (right to speak).

IHC division bench comprising Justice Noourl Haq N Qureshi and Justice Aamir Farooq in the judgment on the PTI’s petition asked the ECP to decide the locus standi of the petitioner first and then address PTI’s objection on jurisdiction of the commission and its power to re-open the closed transaction.

PTI’s lawyer advocate Faisal Hussain was happy over the IHC’s order as he said that IHC had accepted the point Imran Khan had raised in the petition.

“We had raised the objection before the IHC on the locus standi of the petitioner, ECP’s jurisdiction and re-opening of past and closed transactions,” he said adding that the IHC in the verdict passed the same directions to the ECP.

The petitioner Babar on the other hand interpreted the order slightly differently.

He posted on his social media accounts: “Islamabad High Court orders ECP to review its order…as the legal citations that gave ECP the jurisdiction to scrutinize PTI accounts were not mentioned in writing in the ECP order of Oct 8, 2015.”

According to Mr Babar, “next hearing date in ECP is Feb 21 when the ECP would review the IHC order and also proceed with the contempt petition filed against Imran Khan” (for not submitting funding details).

Though Mr Babar is confident that his allegations in regard to PTI’s funding would be proved, he expressed apprehensions that “PTI will gain more time for not revealing its infested accounts”.

Mr Babar’s campaign for transparency in the party accounts led to his differences with the PTI chairman Imran Khan.

He then moved the ECP seeking order for the PTI to provide details of money transferred from the foreign countries including United States, Britain, Canada, Australia and United Arab Emirates to PTI accounts or to accounts of the party’s employees since July 2010.

PTI, defending its position, has taken a stance before the IHC that ECP does not have the authority to adjudicate the matter of disputed facts and complaints raised under the Political Parties Order (PPO) 2002.

Published in Dawn February 16th, 2017