ECP scrutiny committee concludes proceedings

ISLAMABAD: The ECPScrutiny Committee, formed in March 2018, finally concluded its proceedings on Thursday. Now it will not meet again unless ordered by the ECP.

The Scrutiny Committee concluded its proceedings after 41 months without submitting a detailed report before the ECP as repeatedly directed by the electoral body. During this period of over three years, the committee wrote to the State Bank of Pakistan in July 2018 to requisition the PTI accounts for the period 2009-13, which it refused to submit despite repeated orders. As a result, 28 PTI accounts, mostly concealed from the ECP, were revealed. The original PTI accounts revealed through this process remain secret as the Scrutiny Committee refused to allow perusal of these accounts by independent auditors as part of the perusal process. In all, the committee met on at least 80 occasions, the PTI sought 24 adjournments, and four applications for seeking secrecy of proceedings. The committee ordered the PTI on at least 20 occasions to submit financial statements of accounts in Pakistan and abroad, which it refused to-date. The committee was formed in March 2018 for scrutiny of foreign funding of PTI in one month. However, the period was extended for another two months and subsequently without any deadline. It is pertinent to mention that the Scrutiny Committee had failed to meet several deadlines set by the ECP to conclude scrutiny and submit its findings. On October 10, 2019, the ECP in its order accused the PTI of historic abuse of law to delay the case and directed the committee to conclude scrutiny as soon as possible. Again, on June 2, 2020, the ECP directed the committee to submit its findings by August 17, 2020. The report was totally rejected by the ECP in its order August 27, 2020, once again setting a new six-week deadline for submission of a detailed report according to the committee’s TOR. Finally, the ECP ordered the scrutiny committee on April 14, 2021 to submit a comprehensive fact-finding report by the end of May 2021. The committee again failed to comply with the latest ECP directive to submit a report.

It was learnt that Thursday’s meeting was a stormy one, as PTI foreign funding case petitioner Akbar S. Babar’s lawyer Syed Ahmad Hassan Shah, assisted by Badar Iqbal Chaudhry, questioned the purpose of calling the meeting. He contended the ECP had already directed the committee to submit its findings by the end of May and yet there was no report. He said the 100-page perusal report prepared by two independent financial experts, Arsalan Vardag, FCA, and Muhammad Sohaib, had identified Rs2.2 billion of illegal PTI funding besides several other gross violations of funding laws. The report was prepared based on the documents submitted by the PTI. He questioned the legitimacy of the committee meeting as only two of the three members were in attendance. The committee chairman overruled the objection contrary to his earlier position that without the presence of the third member, the committee was incomplete and could not formally meet.

The DG Law ECP, Mohammad Arshad, who heads the committee, explained that it took almost a month for the 100-page fact-finding report submitted before the ECP on July 13 to reach him due to internal ECP delays. He said the report is now part of the record. He was at a loss to explain the purpose of the meeting after the petitioner’s lawyer repeatedly insisted that the only business left for the committee was to submit its findings as directed by the ECP. He said the petitioner remains fully accountable for the auditors’ report and queries in this regard can be addressed to him for clarification, if any. However, the proceedings turned stormy when a member of the Scrutiny Committee suggested to keep the auditors perusal report, which identifies Rs2.2 billion of illegal PTI funding besides other gross violations of funding laws, out of the purview of the scrutiny. Syed Ahmad Hassan Shah said the statement of the committee member shows dishonesty of purpose and confirms the apprehensions of Akbar S Babar that the committee’s scrutiny process was neither transparent nor credible and merely an attempt to rubber stamp the fake PTI documents. Akbar S Babar said that the committee was forewarned in writing on March 5, 2020 and August 13, 2020 that its refusal to share original PTI accounts requisitioned through the State Bank of Pakistan and probe PTI international accounts as well as the front accounts of the four PTI Central Office employees, in whose accounts funds were received through Hundi was evidence enough that the committee proceedings was a mere cover up. He said instead of probing leads which was its constitutional duty, the committee chose to conduct fact hiding instead of fact-finding.

Talking to media persons outside the ECP, Syed Ahmad Hassan Shah stated that the seven-year-old case had reached a critical stage. The scrutiny phase that kept on for over three years has now concluded. He said the proceedings of the committee had ended and now the ECP was expected to take up the case and decide based on merits and evidence. To a question, Akbar S. Babar said that the case should have been decided years ago. He said when there is documentary evidence that the top leadership as PTI chairman and secretary general PTI were in the decision making loop of authorizing fund collection in front accounts of four PTI Central Office employees, the matter attains added seriousness. He said the documented activity has been accepted by the PTI representatives but it refuses to share details of the scale and scope of such funding. Babar said he had asked the committee to inquire from PTI if Arif Naqvi of Abraaj fame had funded PTI. The committee refused. Now there are reports that the PTI foreign funding case had caught the attention of international agencies. If true, the consequences of any international investigation could impact Pakistan’s national security for which the responsibility would squarely rest with the PTI for delaying the case and the constitutional bodies for not conducting a transparent probe and enforcing political funding laws.