The Nation
Islamabad, 11 May 2023 (GNP): The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has instructed its scrutiny committee to present an in-depth report on prohibited funding across all political parties within a span of two weeks
The scrutiny committee was initially created in 2019 to look into prohibited funding of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party.
However, it was later assigned the task of examining the funding practices of other political parties, particularly Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP).
The ECP formed the committee after hearing several cases of PTI’s foreign funding case filed by Akbar S. Babar, PTI’s founding member.
He claimed serious financial irregularities, including shady domestic and foreign bank accounts, money laundering, and the use of personal bank accounts held by party members to accept illegitimate donations from the Middle East.
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Based on the committee’s findings, ECP issued an order on 2nd August last year stating that PTI had received funds from prohibited sources.
PTI, however, denied any wrongdoing and retaliated by requesting the ECP to scrutinize the funding records of PML-N, PPP, and Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F), alleging irregularities and kickbacks.
Moreover, election commission also disclosed polling dates for three National Assembly seats, NA-108 Faisalabad, NA-118 Nankana Sahib, and NA-239 Korangi, which are scheduled for May 28.
ECP also reviewed issues brought up by Jamaat-i-Islami (JI) over the local body elections in Sindh as well as unusual events in Hyderabad Union Council (UC)-119 during the May 7 by-elections.
A hearing on the matter has been set for May 15 and ECP has asked for reports from the provincial election commissioner, returning officer (RO), district returning officer (DRO), and the district police officer (DPO) within three days.
