The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) Tuesday directed the authorities to make public the entire report of the scrutiny committee constituted to audit the foreign funds of the ruling PTI.
The report compiled by the scrutiny committee confirmed that the PTI received funding from foreign nationals and companies, under-reported funds and concealed dozens of its bank accounts. Later, it emerged that the report did not include eight volumes of the documents and bank statements requisitioned through the State Bank of Pakistan. The documents concealed by the committee included all original 28 bank statements and year-wise details of foreign funds transferred to the PTI’s accounts between 2009 and 13, says a news report.
The crucial pieces of evidence were kept confidential as per the committee’s own desires expressed on page 83 of its report which stated that “the committee is of the considered opinion that the portions of the report which have been prepared on the basis of (PTI) bank statements obtained through the SBP may be kept confidential and classified and may not be released in public domain.”
However, during the hearing on Tuesday, Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Sikander Sultan Raja directed that no segment of the report should be kept confidential and the entire report be provided to the petitioner, PTI founding member Akbar S. Babar. He made the remarks after the petitioner’s counsel, Ahmed Hassan, pointed out that some segments of the report had been kept secret and his client had been denied access to them. Responding to the concerns raised by the petitioner, the ECP chief also sought a reply from the PTI’s counsel on Feb 1 and adjourned the hearing. Later, while speaking to media outside the ECP office in Islamabad, Minister of State for Information Farrukh Habib said that the allegations that the party had received funding from India and Israel had “not been proven”.
