Islamabad (Web Desk): Reacting to the ruling of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), leaders of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) said that the party received no prohibited funding.
Addressing a press conference in Islamabad following the verdict, PTI Senior Vice President Fawad Chaudhry said that the overseas Pakistanis raised funds for the PTI and the ECP had acknowledged their narrative that it does not come under "foreign funding".
“I don’t understand why the PML-N, the JUI and the PPP have declared overseas Pakistanis the enemy. We consider overseas Pakistanis to be the backbone of Pakistan’s economy and will continue to rely on them for our funding,” he said.
He said that in the next phase the party will prove that the 16 accounts are legal, adding that these accounts are "subsidiary accounts.
The PTI leader said that no party has the right to hide its funding from the people.
He demanded of the election body to announce its verdict in the funding case against Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) after the PTI.
Speaking on the occasion, PTI Central Deputy Secretary Information Farrukh Habib said that foreign funding was "not proved against the party".
"The verdict disappointed those who were pushing the narrative of foreign funding against the PTI," said Habib.
He said that the PTI was of the view from day one that the case was related to prohibited funding and not foreign funding.
Raising questions over the ECP, the PTI leader said that the IHC had ordered a probe into the accounts of all the political parties without any discrimination.
He said that the scrutiny committee tasked to probe the accounts of PTI completed its work on time but the committees established to check the accounts of PPP and PML were yet to submit their report.
Earlier, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Tuesday ruled that the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) received prohibited funding.
A three-member ECP bench headed by Chief Election Commissioner Sikander (CEC) Sultan Raja, in a unanimous verdict which was reserved on June 21, announced that the PTI received prohibited funding and issued a show-cause notice to the party.
The commission found that 34 foreign donations were taken in fundraising. The donations were taken from America, Australia, Canada and the UAE, the ECP said added, the PTI took funds from an American businessman.
The commission also said that PTI chief Imran Khan had submitted a “misdeclaration” with the commission. The PTI chairman kept accounts hidden which is a violation of the Constitution, it said.
The prohibited funding case, previously referred to as the foreign funding case, was filed by PTI founding member Akbar S. Babar and has been pending since November 14, 2014.
