Fawad Chaudhry wants all political parties to public funding details

LAHORE: Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Fawad Chaudhry on Sunday demanded that the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) should make public funding details of all political parties, ARY News reported.

Addressing a news conference in Lahore along with Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting, Farrukh Habib, the federal minister claimed that Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) was the only party that had provided complete details of its funding to the ECP.

“Funding details of political parties including Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) should be made public,” he demanded.

Fawad Chaudhry also lamented no progress made by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) in foreign funding cases. He also claimed that former prime minister Nawaz Sharif donated Rs100 million to PML-N in 2012 which party returned later.

“Nawaz Sharif donated Rs100 million to PML-N in 2013 and then PML-N returned Rs45 million back to him,” he claimed, adding that they [PML-N] wanted to turn their black money into white.

The PTI leader further urged the ECP to start the scrutiny process from PML-N and PPP and also include other parties including JUI-F and TLP.

EVMs

Speaking on electronic voting machines, Fawad Chaudhry reiterated that upcoming local bodies elections should be held through EVMs. He said that government can provide machines to ECP in two months.

“There will be no problem in conducting local body elections via EVMs at provincial level,” he said.

The minister also slammed Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah for using foul language during Sindh Assembly session.