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EditorialScrutiny committee’s report on PTI's funds

Scrutiny committee’s report on PTI’s funds

The foreign funding case about the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI), paddling in court files and hearings since 2014, had a significant headway on Tuesday after the scrutiny committee of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) came up with a damning report that a portion of PTI’s funds came from foreign nationals and companies, and the party under-reported them and never mentioned several of its bank accounts. This is a graphic case of financial irregularity if the committee’s report remains unchallenged. The party, which is popular among the overseas and expatriate Pakistanis, collected funds to run its electioneering and other routine matters. Though the case is not about embezzling the national exchequer, the party stands in the dock for under-reporting its funds and its efforts to prolong the case. The committee’s report says the PTI misreported Rs312 million between 2009 to 2013. Moreover, four employees of the party kept on receiving donations in their personal accounts, which is again a flagrant violation of laws.

The case emerged after a whistleblower, plaintiff Akbar S Babar, who was once a PTI diehard worker, approached the court on November 14, 2014, alleging massive under-reporting and concealment of accounts. The case has seen 150 hearings, of which 54 times adjournment was sought by the PTI.

The scrutiny committee took four years to compile the report and make it public. Now, the case will be heard on January 18. A similar case about the funding of the Pakistan Peoples’ Party and the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz is also ongoing in the ECP. The cases will set the course of the country and politics in the right direction. The cases are about giving money trails, about which the PTI has long been leading the nation. Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry calls the report “inaccurate”, citing duplication of transactions of Rs150 million and Rs160 million. As the report has been made public, PTI’s lawyers can find anomalies in it and make a better case before the ECP. But the PTI leadership is focused on the scrutiny of the accounts of the PPP and the PML-N. At the end of the day, it is politics that makes the cases dirtier.

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