LAHORE: The Lahore High Court on Friday issued notices to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) and other respondents on a petition of an overseas Pakistani woman challenging a report of the commission’s scrutiny committee in the case of ‘prohibited’ funding against Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI), allegedly showing the petitioner as a foreigner.

Benish Faridi, who lives in the United Kingdom, filed the petition through her special attorney and also challenged the ECP decision against the PTI in the “foreign funding case”.

Advocate Azhar Siddique appeared on behalf of the petitioner and stated before the court that the scrutiny report on “Foreign National Donor” incorrectly determined the nationality of the overseas Pakistanis.

He said a large number of citizens of Pakistan and those living abroad came forward on social media refuting their status as a foreign national donor. He said neither the scrutiny committee nor the ECP had ever verified the information during the course of the proceedings against the PTI.

The counsel argued that the scrutiny committee and the ECP also committed a violation of law by seeking personal information from the National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra) regarding the overseas Pakistanis and blindly relying on such data without any verification.

He said being a member of a political party, every citizen had a constitutionally guaranteed right to participate in a permissible political activity and electoral process in order to elect his/her representatives democratically.

The lawyer submitted that the ECP erred in understanding the status of various organisations and politically victimised the PTI, its members and supporters.

He said the ECP incorrectly concluded that PTI-UK was a public limited company and that it was not permitted under the UK laws to collect political donations and that Pakistan laws did not permit any type of funding by an overseas incorporated company.

He asked the court to set aside the proceedings of the ECP and its scrutiny committee for being in violation of the fundamental rights of the citizens.

Justice Shahid Karim issued notices to the ECP and other respondents for submission of replies and also sought assistance from the attorney general on the next hearing.

Published in Dawn, September 10th, 2022