IHC suspends order to wrap up PTI's foreign funding case in 30 days

Islamabad: A two-judge bench of the Islamabad High Court (IHC) Monday suspended the order directing the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to conclude the foreign funding case against Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) within 30 days.

According to details, an IHC division bench, comprising Chief Justice Athar Minallah and Justice Babar Sattar heard the PTI’s intra-court appeal against the directive of a single bench of the court.

The bench suspended the order and issued notices to 17 political parties and ECP and sought their reply on May 17.

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 Election Commission alleging it bias.

In its petition, the PTI stated that the ECP was showing bias while conducting proceedings against the party in foreign funding case. It alleged that unlike 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 it 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.