IHC hears PTI's petition against ECP

Islamabad: The Islamabad High Court (IHC) has decided to hear the intra-court appeal along with PTI's petition against the alleged bias of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) in a foreign funding case today.

According to details, Chief Justice Athar Minallah is hearing Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf's (PTI) petition alleging the Election Commission of their biasness in the banned funding case against PTI. 

During the hearing, Chief Justice Athar Minallah inquired about the accounts of other political parties. "Are those not being investigated?" Athar Minallah asked. On which the lawyer PTI said that the accounts cases of other political parties are being investigated at a slow pace.

Petitioner's Lawyer Shah Khawar said that PTI is facing the scrutiny of some accounts, Farrukh Habib has filed a petition in the Election Commission against PML-N and PPP.

Shah Khawar Advocate said that by separating PTI from the rest, our things are being highlighted. 

The court asked that you did not raise the same question in the intra-court appeal. That appeal is still pending today.

The court has decided to hold the hearing today by combining the PTI petition with the intra-court appeal. The court said that the intra-court appeal was being heard by a division bench and was fixed for hearing today.

Earlier on Saturday, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) filed a petition in the Islamabad High Court seeking an order against the Election Commission of Pakistan while accusing it of partiality in the foreign funding case against the PTI.

The PTI resorted to Islamabad High Court against the conduct of the Election Commission alleging it bias.

In its petition, the PTI stated that the ECP was showing bias while conducting proceedings against the party in the foreign funding case. It alleged that, unlike the PTI case, the ECP was not conducting scrutiny of accounts of 17 other political parties.

Keeping in view ‘partiality being shown by the ECP’, the PTI is an affected party, the petition added while pleading with the court to order the commission that should direct the State Bank of Pakistan to investigate the accounts of 17 political parties.

And after getting a report about political parties’ accounts, the Election Commission should make this information public, the petition added.

The court was implored that the ECP be directed to decide cases against 17 political parties within a month while hearing them on a daily basis.

The petition was filed by lawyers Anwar Mansoor Khan and Shah Khawar on behalf of PTI leader Amir Kiyani.

The respondents included ECP, PML-N, PPP, MQM, Jamaat-e-Islami, Awami Muslim League, Balochistan Awami Party (BAP), BNP, PTI and others.