ISLAMABAD: The Election Com­mission of Pakistan’s (ECP) Scrutiny Committee, constituted in March 2018 to scrutinise the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf’s (PTI) accounts within a month, met on Thursday for the first time after the ECP reserved its judgement on a complaint challenging the panel’s decision to keep the party’s financial documents secret.

The ECP reserved its order on April 6 and is expected to announce it within the next few days. The order is expected to have a major impact on the scrutiny process and the course of the PTI’s foreign funding case pending before the commission since November 2014.

Besides the petitioner Akbar S. Babar, the two sides were represented by the petitioner’s lawyer Syed Ahmad Hassan Shah who was assisted by Badar Iqbal Chaudhry. The PTI was represented by Syed Khawar Shah, his associate and the party’s finance team.

At the very outset, Mr Hassan Shah complained that despite the committee’s refusal to allow the perusal of the PTI’s financial documents, particularly the PTI bank statements that remain secret, an impression was created that the petitioner had been allowed to peruse these documents. He said this was false as to-date only a few pages of a PTI document that appeared fake and forged and did not carry certification by any auditor or authorised representative had been presented before him. He also complained that his comments and objections were not fully recorded in the committee’s order sheets.

It was decided that the petitioner’s lawyer would document each and every concern on the PTI’s documents and present a text version to the committee which would be incorporated in the committee’s order sheets.

Mr Hassan Shah reiterated that to-date, the committee had not challenged in writing any documentary evidence presented to it by the petitioner.

Petitioner Akbar Babar says ‘we are being asked to ratify fake and forged documents’

The committee responded that the authenticity would be decided in the final report.

Challenging the committee’s response, Mr Hassan Shah reiterated that the authenticity of each and every document before the committee has to be verified during the course of the scrutiny and not after as directed by the ECP in its Order of August 27, 2010. He said the committee’s TOR (terms of reference) clearly stipulated that the scrutiny has to be conducted before both parties. He said it was the primary function of the committee to authenticate and verify the documents during the scrutiny process to ensure that only credible evidence is scrutinised and credible conclusions are drawn.

Mr Hassan Shah raised serious objections on the document presented before him for scrutiny. He said that not only the details of the funding were fake but also fabricated as the documents were neither signed nor authenticated by the PTI’s auditor. He said that without perusal of the official PTI bank statements as required by the State Bank of Pakistan to cross-check the entries of donations presented before him, the scrutiny was an exercise in futility.

The PTI lawyer, Syed Khawar Shah, left early due to other commitments but his associate and the remaining team of the party were present till the end.

The committee was adjourned until April 19 to meet again at noon.

Talking to reporters outside the ECP office, Akbar S. Babar said: “We are being asked to ratify fake and forged documents”. He rejected this as unacceptable, saying that without access to the PTI bank statements revealed through the State Bank to cross-check the documents, the scrutiny process would be merely a bid to rubberstamp an attempt to hide facts and to not bring forth them. He expressed the hope that the ECP would conclusively end the matter of refusing access to official PTI accounts to ensure full transparency in the scrutiny process. He said not a single PTI foreign bank account statement had been revealed despite repeated orders. The PTI has even refused to get its documents scrutinised for the fifth year in clear violation of the TOR.

Mr Babar expressed concern over recent attempts by Prime Minister Imran Khan to bring electoral reforms on ‘a war footing’.

“Why the rush,” he asked, adding, “the next Senate elections are three years away and the next national elections another 30 months away.” He said the last electoral reforms act was passed in 2017 after hundred plus meetings of the select committee. He alleged that the PTI had even then tried to change the political funding laws to make funding secret and beyond scrutiny but due to its limited numbers, it could not push through such an amendment. However, he said, the parliamentary numbers have changed now.

He said if PM Khan is serious about electoral reforms, all he has to do is to prosecute those who masterminded and executed the stealing of the Daska by-election.

Mr Babar warned that if the intended electoral reforms package was a mere cover to change political funding laws to alter the course of the foreign funding case, it would be resisted by all legal and political means.

Published in Dawn, April 9th, 2021