ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) will hear on Tuesday (today) a complaint of the petitioner who had challenged the scrutiny committee’s decision to keep the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf’s (PTI) financial documents secret in the foreign funding case.

The petitioner is Akbar S. Babar, a founding but dissident member of the PTI.

At the last hearing on March 22, the ECP’s director general (law), who heads the scrutiny committee, was directed to explain in writing as to why the committee had failed to comply with the ECP’s Aug 27, 2020, order whereby it was ordered to complete the scrutiny in six weeks.

The directive was issued after ECP’s member from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa retired Justice Irshad Qaiser inquired from the scrutiny committee’s chief how long the process would conclude, and the latter surprised many by responding “it will go on forever”.

The DG law was also asked to submit a written response to Mr Babar’s complaint after his initial reluctance to file any reply with a strange plea that he had already passed an order and there was no need for a reply.

The petitioner’s lawyer, Syed Ahmad Hassan Shah, had argued that access to PTI accounts was a right of his client “in the light of Article 5(4) of the Political Parties Order, 2002, as well as Section 203(5) of the Elections Act, 2017”.

He had claimed that keeping the PTI accounts secret violated the terms of reference that demanded scrutiny in the presence of both parties.

The ECP had also directed the PTI to submit its response by March 30.

In a related development, the ECP scrutiny committee tasked with scrutinising the PTI’s accounts, has been reconvened to meet at 2.30pm on March 31 after a break of weeks.

The ECP is also scheduled to take up on Tuesday a reference seeking disqualification of Pashtun Tahaffuz Movement-backed lawmaker Ali Wazir.

Published in Dawn, March 30th, 2021