ISLAMABAD: The PTI on Saturday challenged the Election Commission of Pakistan’s (ECP) decision to reject the party’s objection to the show cause notice in prohibited funding case.

After the ECP decided in August last year that the PTI secured over $7 million in illegal funding, it issued a show-cause notice, asking the party to justify why further legal action should not be taken against it for financial irregularities.

Instead of replying to the notice, the PTI filed a request to set it aside and sought cross-examination of key witnesses including the ECP’s committee that scrutinised the party’s accounts and bank officers.

The ECP on March 22 rejected the PTI’s application to cross-examine the witnesses and set aside the notice.

In its petition filed with the Islamabad High Court, the PTI requested to set aside the show-cause notice and the ECP’s March 22 order. The ECP in its detailed judgement on the PTI’s request for cross-examination stated that entertaining the application would mean reopening the entire matter that had been decided in August last year. In its unanimous verdict, the ECP ruled on Aug 2, 2022, that the PTI had received ‘prohibited’ funding or contribution, it added.

Published in Dawn, March 26th, 2023