Apr 02 , 2015
News
ECP asks PTI to make full disclosure of foreign funding
INPISLAMABAD: A full bench of the Election Commission headed by the CEC Justice Sardar Muhammad Raza has ordered the PTI to submit full details of its foreign funding by May 6, which is the next date of hearing of the plea filed by a PTI founding member and former central information secretary, Akbar S Babar.
Babar had alleged financial corruption and violation of laws in collection of donations and management of PTI funds. In the previous hearing held on March 17, the PTI had claimed that the details of all the funds received have been duly recorded in the annual audit reports submitted to the ECP. During the scrutiny of PTI audit reports, the PTI lawyer failed to show any details of foreign funds in the audit reports as required under the law despite repeated inquiry by the CEC. The PTI lawyer contended that since the audit reports were accepted by ECP at the time of submission, the Election Commission cannot question the authenticity of the audit reports now.
The CEC responded that now that the matter is in dispute and a pile of evidence has been produced which allegedly shows that foreign funds from forbidden sources were allegedly received, it has the right to scrutinize audit reports submitted earlier by PTI. The CEC warned that the matter was extremely sensitive and the PTI counsel should be cautious in making arguments that may boomerang. The EC member from Balochistan Justice (r) Fazlur Rehman read the relevant clauses that demand that political parties must submit details of foreign funding whereas the PTI audit reports show no details.
The PTI lawyer contended that all the political parties submit similar accounts to which the CEC responded that now that the matter is before the Commission and in view of the seriousness of the allegations, the PTI must submit full details about source and scale of foreign funding. The Petitioner’s lawyer Ahmed Hasan contended that the PTI initially refused to acknowledge foreign funding whereas it operates a dollar account which is forbidden under the law and all the money received could fall into the category of money laundering.
Talking to the media at the conclusion of the hearing, the petitioner Akbar S Babar stated that PTI continues to change its stance in each hearing. In the previous hearing the PTI had questioned the authenticity of the evidence presented regarding over $ 2.0 million dollars donations received from the US from allegedly illegal and prohibited sources. He said contrary to earlier PTI claims it failed to provide any evidence of details of foreign funding as part of the audit reports submitted to the ECP required under the law.
He said a ‘production order’ has been requested from the ECP to order PTI to submit account statements of all PTI accounts and those of PTI employees in whose personal accounts donations were received illegally and complete details about the source and scale of money received from abroad. Babar stated that if foreign donations cannot be accounted for where did the millions of dollars go that were personally raised by Imran Khan during numerous fund raising events organized in the U.S., Canada and Europe? He said the petition would prove to be a landmark case to regulate political parties under the law.
Courtesy www.dailytimes.com.pk