Foreign funding: 'PTI handed over 40,000 documents, donors' details to ECP'

ISLAMABAD: Adviser to the Prime Minister on Parliamentary Affairs Babar Awan has said that Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) handed over 40,000 relevant documents and details of donors to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) in connection with foreign funding case, ARY News reported on Monday.

Babar Awan, while talking to ARY News, clarified about the legal and constitutional position of the ECP by saying that the election commission has no power to ban a political party in a foreign funding case.

He termed the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) a deceased alliance and said that tomorrow’s protest would be their last sob. He said that PDM’s protest outside ECP is neither political or parliamentary nor constitutional from which they are willing to target PTI and topple the incumbent government on the basis of foreign funding allegations.

Read: PM urges ECP to make foreign funding investigations public

Awan said that the Supreme Court (SC) had already given a ruling in a similar scenario like the petition which is being raised by the opposition parties. The top court’s full bench had taken two major decisions regarding the matters related to the prohibited and foreign funding. He added that the case against PTI revolves around prohibited funding, whereas, the PDM parties are facing allegations of foreign funding.

He revealed that foreign funding had been grabbed for the inclusion of women and winning elections in past, whereas, Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) supremo Nawaz Sharif had received funds from Al-Qaeda chief and Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam Fazl (JUI-F) from Libya.

Four political parties are facing the case of prohibited funding and interestingly, PML-N gave arguments regarding the death of the man who had funded Rs100 million to it, said Awan, adding that the political party had failed to give any proof of the donor’s death. Nawaz Sharif had transferred Rs60 million to the bank account from the funds, he said.

Read: ECP scrutiny committee summons PPP, PML-N in foreign funding case

The third political party is Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) who argued for not having any records, whereas, JUI-F leaders have also rejected to provide proofs.

Babar Awan said that ECP should publicise the facts about all four political parties. He predicted that PPP chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari will not attend tomorrow’s protest of PDM. All facts have been uncovered after the Broadsheet revelations and the suspicions of Prime Minister Imran Khan have come out true.

In case of NRO, not only the looted money was lost but the assets will go out of reach from being recovered. An absconding person is propagating against the national institutions including executive authority, judiciary, armed forces and election commission, however, his statement cannot affect the national politics, said Awan.

The PM’s aide clarified that Imran Khan will not give NRO to Nawaz Sharif and PDM parties at any cost.

PDM is set to hold protest outside the ECP’s office on Tuesday (tomorrow). The government had announced not to stop Pakistan Democratic Movement from protest but warned that the law will take its course, if the writ of the state was challenged.