Difficult times faced by political parties in Pakistan, no need to worry too much about it: CEC Dr. Sikandar Sultan Raja

ISLAMABAD, June 6 (SABAH): While giving remarks in Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s (PTI) foreign funding case,  Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Dr. Sikandar Sultan Raja on Tuesday said that difficult times faced by political parties in Pakistan so there is no need to worry too much about it.

A five-member bench headed by Chief Election Commissioner Dr. Sikandar Sultan Raja and comprising member ECP Sindh Nisar Ahmed Durrani, member ECP Balochistan Shah Muhammad Jatoi, member ECP Punjab Babar Hassan Bharwana, and member ECP Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Justice (retd) Ikramullah Khan conducted hearing of the case related to foreign prohibited funding of the PTI.

During the course of the hearing, Chief Election Commissioner Dr. Sikandar Sultan Raja said the case could not be postponed indefinitely.

He further said that this case related to the prohibited funding and added, “on the basis of fact, the ECP has issued its verdict. If you want to challenge the verdict, the resort to a relevant forum. The ECP started the funding confiscation case 10 months ago.” He said even after 10 months, the reply had not been submitted till date.

The Election Commission of Pakistan ordered for record in the previous hearing, lawyer Anwar Mansoor Khan said. “At this time the matter is very serious. Unknown people have taken all the records from our office,” he said adding that the PTI offices were shut down at the moment and PTI officials had gone into hiding.

He said he was trying to obtain records from different sources. The record was available with the PTI and ECP, the commission member Nisar Ahmed Durrani said. The lawyer said they also ordered more records from foreign countries. He said what arguments he should give on the absence of records.

Anwar Mansoor Khan said he had already filed the initial response. He requested for more time to submit the reply.

The Chief Election Commissioner said the case could not be postponed indefinitely. The companies that had provided prohibited funding to the PTI had to explain it, he said.

“Please inform in writing that if the records are not available, then the decision will be announced,” the Chief Election Commissioner said.

The counsel requested to give one more time for reply. At the moment, the ground on a political party had been narrowed too much, he said. Such situations kept happening to political parties in Pakistan, so no need to worry too much about it, the CEC said.

The ECP approved Anwar Mansoor Khan’s request for more time. It has given another four weeks time to submit the reply. Further hearing of the case was adjourned till July 6.

ECP adjourned the hearing of the show cause notice regarding irregularities in the PTI funding till July 6.