ISLAMABAD: Asserting that scrutiny of funding of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) is continuing, the Election Commission of Pakistan announced on Wednesday the committee assigned the task would meet on Dec 24.

In a statement issued here, the ECP’s director for public relations, Altaf Ahmad, said the scrutiny committee conducted numerous hearings and submitted interim reports to the commission.

The scrutiny process was in progress after the ECP’s last order on the matter issued on Aug 27, said the statement. After a number of officials/officers of the ECP secretariat contracted Covid-19, the committee “adjourned the hearing proceedings till further order temporarily”.

The statement said the hearings are “attended by the parties, their counsel and their associates and the number sometimes increases to 14/15 persons besides the chairman and members of the committee…”

It said that in the light of standard operating procedures (SOPs) issued by the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) and adopted by the ECP secretariat for implementation, the committee had now decided to resume the proceedings and meet on Dec 24.

“The committee has also decided that no one will be allowed to participate in the hearing proceedings without strictly observing the SOPs issued by NCOC,” the statement said.

After a gap of weeks, the committee was supposed to meet on Wednesday, but on Tuesday it announced that the meeting had been postponed in compliance with a circular issued by the commission on Dec 3 meant to halt all hearings in view of the Covid-19 situation. No fresh date was announced for the scrutiny committee’s meeting.

Interestingly, under the said circular all ‘court’ hearings have been suspended till Dec 31, but the scrutiny committee will now meet a week before that date, according to Mr Ahmad’s statement.

Under the earlier circular, the training wing of the commission has been closed with immediate effect for four days and members of the wing have been advised to get themselves tested for Covid-19 before resuming their duties. The ECP’s gender wing, library and daycare centre have also been closed till Dec 31, or until further orders.

Meanwhile, sources told Dawn that a number of ECP staffers had contracted Covid-19, compelling the commission to devise a strategy to prevent further spread of the disease.

Those who have recovered after being infected with the virus include Chief Election Commissioner Sikan­dar Sultan Raja and Special Secretary Zafar Iqbal Hussain.

Published in Dawn, December 10th, 2020