Staff Report
ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Tuesday reserved its verdict on four applications by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) seeking secrecy in the scrutiny of its foreign funding case.
Former PTI member and petitioner Akbar S. Babar had filed the foreign funding case before the ECP 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 has also alleged that the foreign accounts used to collect funds were concealed from the annual audit reports submitted to the ECP.
On Tuesday, Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Justice (r)Sardar Mohammad Raza said that the PTI had submitted four new miscellaneous applications to the committee, adding that they “just wanted to increase the burden of work”. He said that the investigative committee had forwarded the applications to him so that he could make a decision. According to PTI’s counsel, in all four applications, they had demanded that the leakage of information should be stopped, in response to which the chief election commissioner inquired what the committee had to do with information being shared on media.
