PTI to challenge ECP's verdict on prohibited funding case

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) has decided to challenge the Election Commission of Pakistan’s (ECP) verdict on prohibited funding case, ARY News reported on Tuesday.

Speaking to journalists after the verdict was announced, PTI Central Deputy Secretary Information Farrukh Habib said that the party would challenge the electoral watchdog’s verdict on the prohibited funding case.

The PTI leader further said that it was the victory of party’s narrative that “this was not a foreign funding case, this was a case about prohibited funding”.

He further stated that those who propelled the narrative of the case being about “foreign funding” have been severely disappointed that the PTI was not banned today. “We will give a sufficient reply to the notice”, he announced.

Raising questions over the election commission, Farrukh Habib noted that the Islambad High Court (IHC) had ordered a probe into the accounts of all the political parties without any discrimination.

He said that the scrutiny committee tasked to probe the accounts of PTI completed its work on time but the committees established to check the accounts of PPP and PML were yet to submit their report.

Taking over the presser, former information minister Fawad Chaudhry said that most of the money was from overseas Pakistanis. “I don’t understand why PML-N, JUI and PPP have declared overseas Pakistanis as the enemy,” he said.

“We consider overseas Pakistanis to be the backbone of Pakistan’s economy and we will continue to rely on them for our funding,” he said, reiterating that the ECP’s decision proved this was never a case of foreign funding.

Meanwhile, PTI leader Maleeka Bokhari said media groups against the party and the coalition parties of PDM had “lost hope” today. She claimed that the PTI was not the kind of party to accept foreign funding, however, the “propaganda” against it was furthered for years.

It is pertinent to mention here that the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) announced the much-awaited verdict in the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf prohibited funding case.

The ECP bench in its reserved verdict said prohibited funding against PTI has been proven. ECP, in its unanimous verdict, ruled that the party received funds from business tycoon Arif Naqvi and from 34 foreign nationals.