ECP gives final deadline to PTI for reply in foreign funding case

ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Thursday has directed Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) chief Imran Khan to submit his reply by July 6 while hearing the party ‘foreign funding’ case, ARY News reported.

Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Justice (retd) Sardar Raza Khan noted that the PTI chief has remained failed to submit a response despite several notices issued to him.

During the proceedings, PTI’s lawyer contended that a similar response pertaining to the party funding has already been filed in the top court, hence the party should be exempted of submitting another response to the ECP.

The CEC ruled that the ECP has already given its judgment on the election commission’s jurisdiction pertaining to the political parties’ funding and the matter falls under its jurisdiction.

The PTI lawyer pleaded for time to submit a reply.

Accepting his request, CEC Justice (retd) Sardar Raza directed him to submit response by July 6. “If PTI remains failed to submit a reply pertaining to foreign funding, the election commission would consider the party has nothing to say on the matter,” the CEC said.

INTRA-PARTY POLLS CHALLENGED

Separately, PTI’s Swabi District President Shah Malik Yousafzai has challenged the party’s recently held intra-party polls by submitting a petition to the ECP on Thursday.

Yousafzai has adopted a stance that the PTI intra-party elections were illegal, seeking invention of the election commission in the matter. He urged the ECP to declare the intra-party polls illegal and order for fresh polls.

Following the intra-party polls, the ECP allotted the electoral symbol ‘Cricket Bat’ to the PTI which it had earlier restricted over failure to conduct intra-party elections.