The PTI lawyer has said that some people illegally collected funds in the name of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf, reported 24NewsHD TV channel.
PTI lawyer Anwar Mansoor claimed this while giving his arguments in the Election Commission of Pakistan which was hearing foreign funding case on Wednesday.
The lawyer contended that the PTI was not responsible for any funds collected without the permission of central finance committee of the party.
Mr Mansoor was giving his arguments on the ECP scrutiny committee report. He was of the view that the evidence provided by the petitioner was not reliable. He said that the ECP should look into forbidden funding, it had nothing to do with the foreign funding.
A three-member bench of ECP headed by its Chief Sikandar Sultan Raja heard the case.
The PTI lawyer contended that since the petition was mala fide, so arguments weren’t held on the scrutiny report. He said that the scrutiny committee downloaded the Ahsan & Ahsan Co repot from internet. He said that the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) keeps the record of funds collection by the party agent. He said the party knew that funds were collected and it submitted its record to the scrutiny committee.
The lawyer said that the party was responsible for the collection which it received from the agent. If the agent misappropriates, then party is not responsible, he added.
He said the scrutiny committee was provided all the record of funding collected in the UK and USA during a period of 2010-2011. We provided record of all our donors to the committee, he added.
He alleged that the scrutiny committee rejected our donors’ record on a wrong assumption, adding that our donors were just overseas Pakistanis.
“The PTI did not collect funds from any foreign nationals,” Mr Mansoor claimed.
The CEC remarked that he should have told these things to the scrutiny committee.
ECP member Nasir Durrani inquired what action the PTI took when they got to know that their agents misappropriated with the funds.
On this, the lawyer replied that the party removed these agents.
He said that the party had specifically directed its agents in foreign countries that all funds should be collected under the PPOK and they were verbally instructed that if an agent violated the order, he himself would be responsible for his deeds.
The PTI lawyer regretted that many political parties did not show any funds in their accounts, but still they would hold public rallies. He expressed his bafflement that these parties held public meetings and stage big protests but there accounts were bereft of any funds.
A member of ECP remarked that no such party had been registered with the commission.
The election commissioner said that he fully agreed with the lawyer and it was the most important task, the commission had been entrusted to do. He remarked that the ECP had upgraded its political finance wing for this very reason.
The ECP has put off foreing funding case till tomorrow.
ECP hears PTI petition
Separately, the Election Commission heard a petition filed by the PTI seeking scrutiny of the accounts of other political parties.
A two-member bench heard the case. But no one appeared before the panel on behalf of petitioner Amir Kiyani.
The ECP member from Sindh objected to it, directing the commission staff to mark absent of the petitioner.
The ECP Balochistan member called upon the lawyer of the petitioner to present his arguments during next hearing.
With this, the bench adjourned the hearing till May 23.
Reporter: Rozina Ali