ISLAMABAD: The Election Commi­ssion of Pakistan (ECP) on Tuesday said it was alive to its constitutional and legal responsibilities and committed to discharging them without any pressure.

In a statement, which came as the 10-party opposition alliance staged a protest outside the ECP building demanding it expeditiously decide the foreign funding case against the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI), the commission said it was ready to hold all elections, including the upcoming Senate polls, the local government as well as by-elections.

About the foreign funding case, the ECP said despite challenges posed by the Covid-19 pandemic, engagements of the parties’ counsel in courts and the retirement of a member of the scrutiny committee, considerable progress had been made.

Says commission is alive to its constitutional responsibilities

It also pointed out that the scrutiny committee had been directed to meet at least thrice a week so that the case could be taken to its logical conclusion.

An ECP official told Dawn the scrutiny committee had taken up the foreign funding case against PTI twice last week and was set to resume the hearing on Wednesday (today).

The ECP’s scrutiny committee last met on Jan 13 and 14.

In the previous meeting, the committee examined the PTI record of two limited liability companies (LLCs) registered in the US.

The petitioner’s lawyer, Syed Ahmad Hassan Shah, assisted by Badar Iqbal Chaudhry, objected to the PTI record and demanded that official record of the two companies registered on the instructions of PTI chairman Imran Khan be scrutinised.

He said they were being asked to scrutinise fake documents and were participating in the process in protest.

He told the committee that it should follow the ECP order of Aug 27, 2020 to authenticate evidence placed before it.

Mr Shah said the committee should not expect “us to rubber-stamp fake and forged PTI documents”.

Published in Dawn, January 20th, 2021