IHC constitutes larger bench to hear PTI’s petition against prohibited funding verdict

ISLAMABAD, August 16: The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Tuesday constituted a larger bench to hear the petition filed by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) challenging the Election Commission of Pakistan’s (ECP) verdict in the prohibited funding case.
The three-member bench will be headed by IHC Acting Chief Justice Amir Farooq while Justice Miangul Hassan Aurangzeb and Justice Babar Sattar will be part of it. The bench will initiate proceedings on August 18.
During the hearing, PTI counsel Anwar Mansoor argued that the election overseeing body did not include the information of accounts that donated money to the party in its verdict. The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) announced the verdict reserved in prohibited funding case against the PTI on August 2. A three-member ECP bench headed by Chief Election Commissioner Sikandar Sultan Raja announced the verdict. In a unanimous decision, the bench declared that the PTI ‘knowingly and willfully’ received funding from prohibited sources, including foreign nationals. The case pertains to the PTI’s funding before the year 2014, especially in 2013 when the results of general elections turned the PTI into a major political force in Parliament from a one-seat party. -SABAH