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PTI Challenges ECP Prohibited Funding Ruling in IHC

Party seeks annulment of verdict and withdrawal of show-cause notice issued to former prime minister Imran Khan

by Staff Report

Farooq Naeem—AFP

The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) on Wednesday approached the Islamabad High Court (IHC) to seek an annulment of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP)’s ruling in the party’s prohibited funding case.

Filed by PTI Additional Secretary-General Omar Ayub, the petition asks the court to both nullify the Aug. 2 ruling and revoke the ECP’s show-cause notice to PTI Chairman Imran Khan to explain why the prohibited funds should not be confiscated. According to the petition, Ayub said he was “grossly aggrieved” by the fact-finding report that had revealed the PTI had obtained funds from foreign sources and demanded that it be declared “perverse, incorrect and in excess of authority and jurisdiction.”

The petition also asks the court to “declare that any action suggested by the ECP is beyond its authority and that no action can be taken on the basis of a fact-finding report.”

Last week, after eight years of hearings, a three-member bench of the ECP issued a unanimous ruling finding the PTI had received prohibited funding and had sought to hide it from the electoral body. According to the verdict, the PTI received funds from 34 individuals and 351 businesses, including companies, in violation of law. The ruling also stated that the PTI chairman had submitted a false Nomination Form I and that the affidavit provided regarding party accounts had also been proven false.

In the petition filed on Wednesday, Ayub said the ECP had not considered or rebutted the information provided by the PTI and “acted with sheer mala fide, without application of mind and has based its findings on fabricated facts, which were aimed to harm and tarnish the political image of the petitioner.”

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