ECP grants PTI a last chance to response in funding case

Web Desk (LTN NEWS): PTI has been given two more weeks by ECP to respond to the prohibited funding cases. This is PTI’s last chance to explain its position on the money it got from foreign donors.

On Tuesday, the case was heard by a group of four people led by Chief Election Commissioner Sikandar Sultan Raja.

Senior lawyer Shah Khawar, who missed the last hearing because he had to go to the higher courts, said that the party hadn’t been able to get the information the commission asked for.

He said that the party had asked its foreign chapters for information about its donors and that it would be able to give its answer once it got that information. “We need some information from the foreign branch of the party. We want to give you the right papers,” he said, asking for two more weeks.

He said that Pakistani donors were being asked for their National Identity Card for Overseas Pakistanis (NICOP) and other documents so that they could give a full answer.

Read: PTI backs IHC in ECP Funding Case

ECP member from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa then asked Khawar how long the case of illegal funding had been going on. When the member asked how long it had been going on, the PTI lawyer said that it had been going on for eight years. The member joked that the party might want to drag it out for another eight years.

At this point, CEC told the party that it should remember that it only had two more weeks left. He asked PTI to send back answers so that the next hearing could start with the arguments.

The ECP’s order also had information about the money the PTI got from 34 foreign nationals and 351 foreign-based companies. However, the overseas Pakistanis strongly disputed the funding record that the ECP gave in the verdict, as several companies that were listed as foreign donors turned out to be owned by overseas Pakistanis.