Pakistan EC orders declassification of key documents in Imran Khan's party's foreign funding case

Islamabad, January 19

The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has ordered the declassification of key documents linked to the foreign funding case against the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf, a move that could potentially spell more trouble for Prime Minister Imran Khan, a media report said on Wednesday.

According to a damning report released earlier this month by the ECP’s Scrutiny Committee, Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) had grossly under-reported funds received from foreign nationals, firms and also concealed bank accounts.  The ruling party had under-reported an amount of Rs PKR 312 million over a four-year period, between FY 2009-10 and FY 2012-13, the report said.  The year-wise details reveal that an amount in excess of PKR 145 million was under-reported in FY 2012-13 alone, it said.

These documents were part of this Scrutiny Committee report, but were not released along with the report, the Dawn newspaper said.  These documents, which will be made public, will include all the papers sought by the ECP through the state of Pakistan, in its letter dated July 3, 2018, the newspaper report said.

Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Sikander Sultan Raja passed the order on Tuesday, when the counsel for the petitioner said that certain critical portions of the report had been kept secret and his client was being denied access to them.

The CEC directed that no part of the report should be kept confidential and the whole report should be provided to the petitioner, the report said.  The ECP had kept the documents away from the public domain after PTI had objected to sharing the documents with Akbar S. Babar, the ruling party’s founding member and the petitioner in this case, it added. The Scrutiny Committee report has turned into a political firestorm in Pakistan, with opposition parties launching blistering attacks on Prime Minister Khan and his party.

Claiming that Khan’s calls for transparency remained exposed, Opposition Pakistan Peoples Party lawmaker Shazia Marri alleged that the “incumbent party was being funded by prohibited sources, and the PTI members were lying to the nation,” the report added. PTI