By Ali Imran
ISLAMABAD: The counsels of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and estranged founding member of the party, Akbar S Babar presented their arguments before the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Tuesday.
The tribunal heard arguments on the transparency of the scrutiny committee formed to investigate the foreign funding case against PTI.
The counsel of the PTI argued that the scrutiny committee should be allowed to carry on with its work. He maintained that the commission should check whether the committee was working under the directives of the Supreme Court and following the TORs.
PTI’s counsel was of the view that objections on the scrutiny committee at this point in the case were not appropriate.
On the other hand, Babar’s counsel argued that the scrutiny committee was not working in accordance with the TORs.
He maintained that the committee does not investigate in front of them and the records were not being provided to them.
He further argued that the committee had not managed to begin identifying illicit funding as yet.
Petitioner Babar had filed the case against PTI in 2014, alleging that nearly $3 million in illegal foreign funds were collected through two offshore companies and that money was sent through illegal ‘hundi’ channels from the Middle East to accounts of ‘PTI employees’. He had also alleged that the foreign accounts that used to collect funds were concealed from the annual audit reports submitted to the ECP.
