ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Tuesday summoned the central finance secretary of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf to appear before it in person on Dec 12 — the next date of hearing — to answer queries about the purported financial evidence submitted by the PTI to the commission.

The order by an ECP bench came after the PTI once again sought adjournment of the foreign funding case on the plea that its senior lawyer was unwell.

At the last hearing, the ECP had directed the PTI to submit its reply to the petitioner’s analysis of its evidence submitted before the Supreme Court and the commission.

Petitioner says PTI employing delaying tactics; party lawyer seeks adjournment of case

The petitioner, Akbar S. Babar, had submitted a detailed analysis of the PTI evidence during the last hearing, which he claimed was mostly concocted and fabricated and did not provide any evidence of multiple illegal foreign sources of funds or any money trail the evidence of which had already been shared with the ECP.

When asked by the bench why the PTI had not submitted the reply, its junior lawyer apologised and instead sought adjournment of the case. He pleaded that the next date of hearing should be after Dec 5 when the Islamabad High Court was set to hear the PTI petition challenging the ECP jurisdiction to hear the foreign funding case.

The petitioner’s lawyer, Syed Ahmed Hasan, pleaded that the PTI had consistently employed delaying tactics which should not be tolerated anymore. He said he was ready to assist the ECP and provide a detailed analysis of the mostly fake evidence submitted by the PTI. He said the time had come to order confiscation of all prohibited funds received by the PTI, particularly those already identified from the United States, and order the Federal Investigation Agency to probe PTI accounts for identifying the full scale and scope of illegal sources and funds received from abroad.

The ECP member from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa suggested that it would be better if the respondent’s representatives were also present during the scrutiny of PTI evidence. Consequently, the four-member bench adjourned the hearing until Dec 12 with clear instructions for the PTI’s central information secretary and the finance manager to be personally present during the next hearing to answer queries.

The PTI junior lawyer committed to submitting a reply to the petitioner’s analysis of their evidence much before the next hearing date.

Published in Dawn, November 22nd, 2017