PTI team walks out of ECP scrutiny committee meeting – Pakistan

ISLAMABAD: The Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) team in Pakistan left a scrutiny committee meeting on Wednesday when the Pakistan Election Commission (ECP) raised an objection in its order on Deputy Attorney General Saqlain Haider representing the PTI as your principal lawyer in the case of foreign financing.

It was the second meeting of the scrutiny committee after the rejection of PTI objections by the PCE in its order of October 10 to the scrutiny process.

The commission had ordered the petitioner and the PTI to appear before the scrutiny committee on October 14 and complete the scrutiny process as soon as possible.

But on October 14, the PTI sought another postponement by saying that its finance team had gone abroad.

Sources said Wednesday that the PTI attorneys opposed the October 10 order, which was shared with the committee for the first time, for the rejection of their objections to the scrutiny process.

The ECP in its detailed order available with Dawn He has questioned the merit of lawyer Saqlain Haider representing the PTI despite having been appointed deputy attorney general.

The Commission questions the merit of the lawyer representing the party

The order says: "Saqlain Haider, counsel for the defendant who says he was appointed Deputy Attorney General, had no right to appear at a political party against the interest of the state."

In addition, it states that the PTI lawyer "should protect the state and not the party, that they are two completely different entities" and that "the wise lawyer should have preferred the state over the interests of a political party after his current appointment as Prosecutor Deputy General ".

The order establishes that the "commission faces an unprecedented delay phenomenon caused by the defendant who exploits the presence or existence of the plaintiff."

Upon the request of PTI to exclude the petitioner and its founding member Akbar S. Babar from the scrutiny process, the order states: "The request for exclusion of the plaintiff from the scrutiny was not justified because the latter had to provide material evidence to the committee."

The ECP order stipulates that the PTI requires that the petitioner be excluded from scrutiny of his 23 bank accounts that were disclosed following the instructions of the State Bank of Pakistan "frivolous as usual because such accounts were known only by the petitioner's complaint." Such accounts rather support the complainant so that they are not taken into account. ”

The ECP terms "interesting" the PTI demand of the committee to share details of their accounts and "with this frivolous excuse the matter was delayed for a considerable time as usual."

When he contacted him, PTI Secretary of Finance Azhar Tariq said that if the lead lawyer was excluded from the proceedings, it made no sense to go to the counting committee until a new lead lawyer was appointed.

However, he said the PTI was not boycotting the procedures. “We will proceed and provide all that is required. We want this matter to reach its logical conclusion. "

Tariq said during the last hearing that the PTI was asked to submit para-wise comments, which he submitted on Wednesday.

He said the PTI had to look for details of its accounts in the banks because the ECP did not share the ones it had received directly from the banks.

He said that more than 95 percent of information had been received that had also been submitted to the PCE. He said that letters were again written to the banks to obtain the missing information and copies of these letters were also provided to the counting committee.

"The drama of the false accounts is now exposed," he said and said that 4 or 5 accounts mentioned in the reports received from the banks' ECP did not belong to the PTI. He said Akbar S Babar was a signatory to two of the bank accounts he had considered false.

The PTI leader said the PCE was not a court or a court. He said the scrutiny committee was carrying out procedures as if it were a court and that only lawyers could speak.

He said that his party's financial advisor, who is a highly qualified public accountant, was once asked by the general director (law) of the PCE who heads the scrutiny panel after pointing out that the procedures should be performed according to international accounting. norms and standards.

When contacted, Akbar S. Babar refused to disclose details of the scrutiny committee procedures. He said the case has gained national importance since serious questions about the financial misconduct or not of the ruling party are at stake here.

Posted on Dawn, October 24, 2019