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Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaaf (PTI) on Tuesday challenged the Election Commission of Pakistan's (ECP) order to furnish its bank details in the Islamabad High Court (IHC).
Party representatives informed the ECP that they had taken the matter to the IHC as they believe that the ECP has no jurisdiction in the matter and cannot summon PTI's bank details.
A five-member committee of the ECP, headed by Chief Election Commissioner Sardar Raza, then asked the PTI to produce the restraining order from the IHC that bars them from hearing the case.
"Has the high court passed any restraining court?" the chief election commissioner asked.
The PTI counsel said though the court had not passed any restraining order it had fixed the petition for a hearing on Wednesday.
"How can we adjourn the proceedings without any restraining order from the high court?" Raza, himself a retired justice, asserted.
The PTI's counsel then argued that a petition of similar nature was also being heard by the Supreme Court so the matter should be adjourned.
He requested the ECP to adjourn the matter till next week, as PTI lead counsel Mansoor was busy in the apex court.
However, the chief election commissioner turned down the request and adjourned the hearing till tomorrow (Wednesday).
The election commission also expressed its annoyance over PTI's non-compliance in providing details of its bank accounts.
The foreign funding case has been in limbo since Oct 8, 2015 when a full bench of the ECP rejected the PTI’s stance that the commission did not have jurisdiction to scrutinise the party’s accounts.
In November 2015, the PTI filed a petition in the IHC to suspend the ECP's scrutiny of its bank accounts.
However, after waiting for over a year, the ECP finally passed an order on Dec 1, 2016 asking the PTI to submit all documents about its finances, including the bank statements of PTI leaders in whose accounts money was allegedly received from illegal sources.
The documents sought include the registration deeds of two US-based offshore companies, which were allegedly used to collect $3 million and transfer the funds to PTI accounts in Pakistan.
