Foreign funding case: IHC rejects PTI petitions against Akbar S Babar

ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court (IHC) has turned down two petitions of the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) against Akbar S Babar in foreign funding case, ARY News reported on Friday.

The IHC rejected a petition filed by the ruling political party to bar the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) from handing over the records of the PTI foreign funding case to the petitioner Akbar S Babar.

Another petition of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) for separating Babar from the proceedings of the case was also rejected by the high court.

READ: FOREIGN FUNDING BEING USED IN ATTEMPTS TO TOPPLE PTI GOVT: PM IMRAN KHAN

The high court retained the verdict of the election commission in the case. Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani announced the reserved verdict on the PTI petition today.

The ruling political party had decided to challenge ECP’s verdict to dismiss the PTI’s petitions filed on January 25 and January 31. Foreign funding is being heard by the election commission since November 2014.

On March 26, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf had challenged the ECP verdict in the Islamabad High Court as the party’s secretary-general Asad Umar filed a petition. It stated that they are bound to provide funding records only to the election commission.

READ: PTI DISOWNS 11 ACCOUNTS IN FOREIGN FUNDING CASE BEFORE ECP

It also added that the PTI’s response should not be handed over to Akbar S Babar regarding the scrutiny committee report besides excluding him from the case. The commission had rejected both petitions.

It was also pleaded with the high court to nullify the ECP’s March 15 order and the fixation of the hearing on March 27 by the Registrar Office. It read that ECP is an administrative authority but not a court of law.

A miscellaneous petition had also been enclosed to seek a stay order from the high court.