ISLAMABAD: A day after confronting the military over the ‘three options’ controversy, former human rights minister Dr Shirin Mazari on Saturday blamed the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) of being biased towards the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI).

“ECP again reveals its anti-PTI bias! Instead of hearing all parties foreign funding cases simultaneously, it continues to only focus on hearing of PTI case. We know where pressure is coming from but it is unfortunate how brazen ECP has become in its bias,” Ms Mazari tweeted.

The verbal attack on PTI was launched a day after the ECP announced that it would hold day-to-day hearing of the foreign funding case against the PTI.

The commission had on Friday announced that the decision to hear the foreign funding case on a daily basis was aimed at implementing the Islamabad High Court’s order, directing the ECP to dispose of the matter within 30 days.

The IHC issued the order after it dismissed an appeal of the PTI against the ECP order rejecting two applications seeking dismissal of the foreign funding case and disassociating petitioner Akbar S. Babar from the case and keeping the PTI documents secret.

Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani of the Islamabad High Court (IHC), in his detailed order, had rejected the PTI’s petition as the law allowed Akbar S. Babar to participate in the case proceedings and held that the ECP, as a constitutional body, had the right to seek assistance of Babar and come to conclusions based on the merits of the case.

A report compiled by ECP’s scrutiny committee had emerged on January 4 confirming that the PTI received funding from foreign nationals and companies, under-reported funds and concealed dozens of its bank accounts.

According to the report, the PTI under-reported Rs312 million between FY2009-10 and FY2012-13. Year-wise details show that Rs145 million was under-reported in FY2012-13 alone.

“A perusal of the chartered accountant’s opinion on the accounts of PTI for this period does not indicate any deviation from the reporting principles and standards,” the report said.

Published in Dawn, April 17th, 2022