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The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Tuesday rubbished allegations that it was delaying the foreign funding cases pending against various political parties of the country, saying that hearings and proceedings were being delayed on various pretexts by the parties themselves.
In a statement, the electoral body said that a scrutiny committee had already submitted its report on the foreign funding case against the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf and the case was now nearing its conclusive stage. While the statement said that final arguments from PTI’s lawyer would be completed this week, the ECP on Wednesday granted the party another extension, with the next hearing set to take place in May.
According to the ECP, the scrutiny committee would hear foreign funding cases against the Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz), and the Pakistan Peoples Party on May 9, adding that it had sought some necessary records for this purpose. It said that the chairman of the scrutiny committee had been directed to submit reports on these cases by April 28, but the proceedings had been repeatedly delayed on one pretext or another.
Per the statement, PTI’s Amir Mahmood Kiani had filed an application seeking audit of accounts of 101 political parties, including the PTI, from year 2014 to 2018 on Jan. 20, 2020. After undertaking the scrutiny exercise, it said, notices had been issued to 18 political parties on Feb. 3, 2020, with the case fixed for regular hearing on Feb. 18, 2020. It accused political parties of using delaying tactics in the case, adding that ex parte proceedings had been initiated against parties that neither submitted replies nor appeared before the commission.
Article 63A
The ECP said that the National Assembly speaker had sent declarations under Article 63A against 20 dissident MNAs of the PTI to the chief election commissioner (CEC) on April 14, which had been fixed for hearing on April 28. Similarly, it said, the Punjab Assembly speaker had sent declarations against 26 dissident members on April 20, who had been issued notices for May 6. A notice had also been issued to the party concerned, it said.
Under the law, read the statement, the ECP must decide on declarations within 30 days of their receipt.
The PTI has, in recent days, accused the ECP of delaying the disqualification of dissident lawmakers who violated party discipline by voting against party chairman Imran Khan in the vote of no-confidence. However, none of the dissident lawmakers actually voted in the no-trust motion, raising questions about how they would be proceeded against.
General elections
With regards to early elections—as demanded by the PTI—the ECP said it had received a letter on April 18 from the Ministry of Planning, Development, and Special Initiatives, stating that the seventh population census would commence on Aug. 1 and its results would be received by Dec. 31. If this exercise were to continue, it said, the ECP would be constitutionally bound to hold elections based on the new census as the previous 2017 census would become irrelevant. In this scenario, it said, the ECP would start working on delimitation from January 2023 and would require at least four months to issue new lists of constituencies after which elections could be held.
If the government opts against a new census, it said, it could conduct new polls before the end of the year.
The ECP stressed that it was discharging its constitutional responsibilities without fear and would not succumb to any pressure, a likely reference to recent calls from the PTI for the CEC to resign as they no longer have any “trust” in him.