Islamabad High Court (IHC) Chief Justice Aamer Farooq on Wednesday remarked that the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP)’s decision in the prohibited funding case against the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) was an ‘observation’ and that if the PTI proved that the funds were not prohibited, the decision would have to be changed, a private TV channel reported. A larger bench headed by the IHC CJ heard the PTI’s plea against the electoral watchdog’s decision in the prohibited funding case. Barrister Anwar Mansoor appeared in the court on behalf of PTI and in his arguments said that the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) had begun its action in the context of the ECP’s decision. The chief justice highlighted that the commission’s decision was sometimes being “called an order, sometimes a report, and sometimes an opinion”. He maintained that he viewed it as a fact-finding report. The PTI lawyer maintained that the ECP had no authority to give such a declaration.
Justice Farooq said that the electoral body had not given any declaration that stated Imran Khan is not honest and trustworthy. He furthered that the commission had only made one conclusion. To this, Mansoor stated that the ECP had in fact given its declaration and reiterated that it did not have the authority to do so. He furthered that the ECP had used the word “hold” and Justice Mian Gul Hasan Aurangzeb questioned how the commission could do that without showing its show-cause notice to the PTI. Justice Farooq inquired whether the former ruling party was worried about disqualification at the hands of the ECP, to which the party’s lawyer stated that the ECP had declared PTI chief Imran Khan’s declaration of funding to be wrong.
He added that the ECP had dubbed PTI a “foreign-aided party” which it did not have the authority to do. CJ Farooq said that the ECP had not given any declarations in its report, while Justice Aurangzeb said that the ECP should have reached a conclusion before issuing the show-cause notice. The lawyer further said that Imran Khan was not made a party in the case, rather the PTI as a whole was made a party. He said that the ECP did not issue a notice to Imran Khan.
To this, the chief justice said that the Election Commission would probably not do as much as the counsel thought. Later, the lawyer of the ECP argued that the commission’s verdict would be called a decision because a show-cause notice was issued after that. The court said that the ECP had shown that it would forfeit the funds to the government if the case was proven. The ECP advocate replied that the funds could only be confiscated as a final result.
