IHC rejects PTI’s plea barring ECP not to share foreign funding record with Babar

Rejecting the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf’s (PTI) petition, seeking immediate order to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) not to share the ruling party’s foreign funding record with Akbar S. Babar, the petitioner in the case, the Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Tuesday issued notices to both the ECP and Babar to submit their replies by April 1, 2022, reported 24NewsHD TV channel. 

During the hearing of PTI’s petition, Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani of the IHC said the court would give its ruling in the case only after listening to the election commission as well as Babar’s point of views. 

PTI, in its petition, had prayed to the court to bar Babar from commenting on the ECP’s record. 

Anwar Mansoor, counsel for the ruling party, told the court that the ECP had formed a scrutiny committee for which it also prepared terms of reference (TORs). “And that the committee collected data from the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) on its own, and that Babar has nothing to do with those findings,” he argued.  

The court asked him to name those clauses of the constitution which barred the election commission from giving access to an individual to a party’s funding record.  

Anwar Mansoor then read out before the court the relevant clauses.     

Justice Kayani counselled him not to worry since the scrutiny committee had not given as much importance to Akbar S. Babar while gathering data of the funds PTI had received from abroad. “The committee had compiled the report on its own,” the judge remarked. 

The judge further said there was no bar on the ECP from seeking information from any department.    

This prompted the PTI’s counsel to reply that there existed Supreme Court (SC) verdicts which said that the election commission could not go beyond its limits. 

Justice Kayani asked from Advocate Mansoor whether he wanted the court to devise a code of conduct for the ECP. “Are PTI’s foreign funding- related documents confidential?” he asked. 

The court then adjourned hearing of the case until April 1.                                        Reporter: Ihtesham Kiani