PTI plea for keeping foreign funding report under the wraps rejected

The Election Commission of Pakistan has rejected the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf’s request to keep secret the scrutiny committee’s damning report on party’s foreign accounts, reported 24NewsHD TV channel.

The election commission issued its written order on the PTI application on Tuesday.

PTI lawyer Shah Khawar requested the election commission to not public the scrutiny report regarding party’s foreign bank accounts through which the party received funding from people or organizations. 

According to the written order, the ECP wondered how could it conceal the report when it has already become a public document. Saying this, the commission rejected the PTI request.

A three-member bench of the ECP headed by the chief election commissioner heard the plea.

Former attorney general Anwar Maqsood appeared on behalf of the PTI. 

While petitioner Akbar S Babar was also present in the court along with his lawyer.  

Mr Maqsood said that the PTI hailed the ECP’s initiative to start scrutiny of political parties. But in the PTI scrutiny report, there were many flaws. 

There are so many calculations that are incomprehensible and many numbers have been repeated, he added. 

However, the ECP rejected the PTI plea to keep some parts of the scrutiny report secret.

Reporter Usman Khan