The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Wednesday rejected Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf's (PTI) appeals to restrain a scrutiny committee formed by the body from probing the party's sources of funding, and for secrecy of the scrutiny process.

Earlier this month, the PTI had filed two complaints with the ECP — one challenging the terms of reference (ToRs) of the scrutiny committee which allowed the party's accounts to be scrutinised in the presence of petitioner and dissenting PTI founding member Akbar S. Babar, and the other asking to keep the entire scrutiny process secret.

The ECP in its verdict dismissed the PTI's objections over the ToRs and ordered the scrutiny committee to continue its work. The ECP said the committee would decide whether the scrutiny proceedings should be in-camera or not, and whether Babar will be privy to the committee's proceedings or not.

The scrutiny committee, headed by the director general law, and comprising two auditors from the defence establishment, was formed by a five-member bench of the ECP headed by Chief Election Commissioner retired Justice Sardar Mohammad Raza on March 27, but commenced its scrutiny of PTI's sources of funding on April 3 this year.

The committee could not, however, make any significant progress during the month as the PTI failed to submit financial documents, particularly bank statements of its accounts, sought by the committee, and also objected to the ToRs and the alleged breach of secrecy of the scrutiny process.