ISLAMABAD: The Isla­mabad High Court (IHC) on Tuesday directed the ECP to seek help from forensic experts for scrutiny of the funding of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), and other political parties.

The court issued the direction to the ECP representative, citing that documentation of the transactions is also a requirement of the IMF.

At the hearing of PTI’s petition, which sought scrutiny of funding of 17 parties, an ECP representative submitted the report before Chief Justice of the IHC Aamer Farooq.

When Justice Farooq asked ECP Director Gen­eral (Law) Mohammad Arshad how long it would take to complete the scrutiny, the official said the commission had to examine thousands of transactions and it was in the process.

PTI’s counsel told the court that the ECP started the scrutiny of all the political parties simultaneously, but the commission concluded the report on PTI in haste while the inquiry on the funding of other parties seems to be least priority.

According to the petition, the PTI was the only party that faced daily proceedings in the matter. It requested the court to end this “discrimination” by also holding other parties accountable.

Published in Dawn, February 8th, 2023