ISLAMABAD: A petition seeking the initiation of contempt proceedings against Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaaf (PTI) chairman Imran Khan over his contemptuous and scandalous remarks against the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has been filed before the commission.

The petitioner is Akbar S. Babar, a former founding member of PTI who parted ways with the party and is now the complainant in the foreign funding case against his old party. In his petition, Mr Babar asks for Mr Khan to be personally summoned to explain his allegations of “bias” against the ECP.

“Imran Khan should be restrained from publicly maligning constitutional institutions... no person, however politically powerful or influential, should be allowed to defame constitutional institutions, which could lead to chaos,” the petition states.

It maintains that the PTI application, submitted to seek a review of an ECP order to produce financial documents in the foreign funding case, contains statements that are “reprehensible, scandalous and contemptuous towards this honourable commission”.

Petitioner in foreign funding case files petition against PTI leader before commission

Following the unconditional apology tendered by the PTI lawyer and the withdrawal of the contemptuous review application, “rather than being remorseful, the respondent (Imran Khan) has publicly denounced the need for due apology and yet again undermined the commission. This act in itself is scandalous and contemptuous and renders [Imran Khan] liable to exemplary liability under law,” it reads.

The PTI chief’s statements and tweets, as well as statements from his spokespersons, have also been annexed with the petition as evidence of the PTI and its leaderships’ disowning of the apology submitted by their lawyer.

On Jan 9, 2017, an application was filed by the PTI in response to a Dec 1, 2016 ECP order to produce financial documents in the foreign funding case, which contained serious allegations of bias against the ECP.

In an order released on Friday, the ECP rejected the PTI’s allegations of bias and took strong exception to the use of “filthy and totally false” remarks against a constitutional institution. The order states that “no civilized person is expected to malign constitutional institutions in [such a] manner”.

The order read: “It appears that the legal as well as civilized manners to be adopted in such proceedings are avoi­d­­ed in order to play politics with the ins­titute from which remedies are sought.”

Accepting the apology submitted by the PTI lawyer, it noted that: “There is no apology on behalf of respondent number 1 (Imran Khan).”

The order not only berated PTI for its unbecoming conduct through the use of inappropriate language and casting aspersions on a constitutional institution, but also rejected PTI’s application to review its order to produce financial documents. Instead, the ECP ordered the PTI to comply with its original Dec 1 order and produce all financial documents on the next date of hearing, which is set for Jan 23, 2017.

The foreign funding case has been in limbo since Oct 8, 2015, when a full bench of ECP rejected the PTI’s stance questioning the commission’s jurisdiction to scrutinise the party’s accounts.

In November 2015, the PTI filed a writ petition in the IHC to suspend ECP scrutiny of its accounts. However, after waiting for over a year, the ECP finally passed an order on Dec 1 demanding that the PTI submit all documents, including bank statements of those PTI employees in whose accounts money was allegedly received from illegal sources.

The documents sought include the registration deeds of two offshore companies in the US, which were allegedly used to collect and transmit over $3 million to PTI accounts in Pakistan.

In April, 2015, the ECP after scrutiny had found no traces of these funds in the PTI audit reports submitted before it.

Published in Dawn January 22nd, 2017