ISLAMABAD: The scrutiny committee of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) will hold an open hearing in the PTI’s foreign funding case after its proceedings.
He was commenting on the ECP’s statement issued the day before, where it rejected the public hearing of the case.
He said there was confusion over whether the hearing would be public.
An ECP spokesman clarified that the proceedings of the scrutiny committee would not be open.
He said that the proceedings were going on in the presence of both the parties and there would be an open hearing to forward the recommendations of the committee after submitting the report.
Just two days ago, Prime Minister Imran Khan challenged all suspicions about his party’s activities, saying the proceedings in the foreign funding case should be televised live.
Talking to reporters in South Waziristan, the Prime Minister said that the proceedings should be open and party leaders should attend the hearings.
Case background
Akbar S. Babar, a founding member of PTI, had claimed in his petition against the Imran Khan-led party in November 2014 that there had been massive financial irregularities in dealing with about $ 3 million in foreign funding.
Following this request, PTI had challenged the orders of the Election Commission in 2017 at the IHC.
In the same year, the High Court again referred the case to the Electoral Commission for review of its jurisdiction. In this case, the High Court had also declared Babar a member of the ruling PTI.
Later on May 8, 2017, an ECP bench stated that the body has full jurisdiction over the matter.
In March 2018, a scrutiny committee was formed to look into PTI’s foreign funding accounts to find out if anything had gone wrong.
The PTI has repeatedly sought confidentiality in the probe and had approached the ECP in this regard. However, in October 2019, the ECP rejected the party’s request.
PTI chief Imran Khan has repeatedly accused the ECP of working for the interests of the opposition in the matter.
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