ISLAMABAD: A five-mem­ber bench of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) headed by Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) retired Justice Sardar Raza Mohammad Khan on Tuesday again summoned the finance secretary of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) to appear before it on Jan 16 in the now-famous foreign funding case.

The order for the personal appearance of the PTI’s finance secretary was passed by the ECP after the PTI, despite making a commitment at the last hearing, did not submit its reply to the objections raised by petitioner and PTI dissident Akbar Babar in his analysis of the documents that had been submitted to the commission as well as the Supreme Court by the party in September as evidence in the case.

Challenging the veracity of the documents, Mr Babar had termed the evidence “concocted” and alleged that the PTI had concealed the details of the accounts and fund raising.

During the previous hearing, the ECP had asked PTI’s finance secretary Azhar Tariq Khan and the party’s senior counsel and former attorney general Anwar Mansoor Khan to respond to the petitioner’s analysis at the next hearing. However, neither the finance secretary nor the senior counsel appeared before the ECP.

Instead, a junior lawyer, Saqlain Haider, appeared before the commission and sought adjournment of the proceedings on the pretext that a single bench of the Islamabad High Court hearing the PTI’s writ petition challenging the jurisdiction of the ECP to hear the case had on Dec 5 passed a verbal restraining order.

At one point, the CEC got infuriated when the counsel asked the ECP to hear him with patience.

“The case has been pending for over three years because of you and you are asking us to show patience,” the CEC remarked.

The petitioner’s lawyer, Badar Iqbal Chaudhry, argued that the PTI had already conceded the jurisdiction of the ECP before the IHC while questioning the locus standi of the petitioner and, therefore, there was no justification for seeking the adjournment.

The petitioner also personally pleaded before the commission, saying that his rights had been continuously trampled with the unwanted delaying tactics adopted by the PTI for the past three years. He said the IHC had not passed any written restraining order. He asked the ECP to proceed and pass conclusive orders which, if challenged before the IHC, would at least provide him an opportunity to challenge any written restraining order in the Supreme Court.

After hearing arguments from both sides, the CEC sought strict compliance with the previous order for the PTI finance secretary to appear in person before the commission on the next date of hearing set for January 16 and submit response to the questions raised about the PTI evidence, otherwise “all legal inferences would be drawn”.

Published in Dawn, December 13th, 2017