The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) will hold an open hearing of the foreign funding case against the PTI only after the oversight committee has submitted its recommendations, its spokesman confirmed Saturday.
He said there was confusion over whether the trial would open to the public or not. The oversight committee process will not open, an ECP spokesman explained.
He said the process was continued in front of both parties and an open session would be held to forward the recommendations from the committee after submitting the report.
In addition, the ECP spokesperson’s statement came after Prime Minister Imran Khan challenged all parties skeptical of his party’s activities by saying that the foreign funding case process should be broadcast live on TV.
Speaking to reporters in South Waziristan, the prime minister said trials must be open and that party heads must attend hearings.
Accepting PM Imran Khan’s challenge on Thursday, PML-N Khawaja leader Saad Rafique said that someone “hiding behind a stay order” for the past six years is now talking about live coverage of the process.
Rafique said Prime Minister Imran Khan, who for years “defrauded the agency through lawyers”, was now filing cases against PML-N and PPP.
According to sources, PML-N spokesperson Marriyum Aurangzeb said that 24 hours have passed, and the prime minister has not submitted a request to have the foreign funding case records published.
Akbar S Babar, a founding member of the PTI, had filed a case against Imran Khan’s party in November 2014 claiming in his petition that there was massive financial irregularity in dealing with foreign funding of up to nearly $ 3 million.
After the petition, PTI challenged the ECP’s order at IHC in 2017.
That same year, the IHC sent the case back to the electoral body to review its jurisdiction once again. In that case, the high court also appointed Babar as a member of the PTI decision.
Then on 8 May 2017, the ECP bench stated that the agency had full jurisdiction over the case.
In March 2018, a supervisory committee was formed to check PTI’s foreign funding accounts to determine if there had been any mistakes.
PTI on several occasions has sought confidentiality in its surveillance and has also approached the ECP, for that matter. However, in October 2019, the ECP rejected the party’s request.
PTI head Imran Khan has repeatedly accused the ECP of working on behalf of the Opposition in the case.