ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) Monday said PTI\u2019s foreign funding case verdict \u2014 which was reserved on June 21 \u2014 will be announced today at 10am.
\nThe election commission today released the cause list for the prohibited funding case. According to the cause list, the verdict will be announced by a three-member bench led by Chief Election Commissioner Sikandar Sultan Raja.
\nThe decision to announce the verdict comes after a Financial Times expos\u00e9 revealed that the PTI received funding from Wootton Cricket Club belonging to Abraaj founder Arif Naqvi. The funds were generated through a charity match and an Arab personality also pitched in a large sum of money.
\nThe FT report provided ammunition to the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM), and they demanded an early announcement of the verdict \u2014 in the case which was filed in 2014 by Akbar S Babar.
\nEarlier, ECP officials, on the condition of anonymity, told Daily Jang that the election commission will announce the foreign funding verdict during the first week of August.
\nThe sources said that the PTI would only harm itself if it files a reference against CEC as certain matters which were earlier hidden from public view would be revealed during the hearings.
\nThey said that the ECP is a constitutional body and will continue to follow the constitutional path.
\n\u201cThe ECP will not bow to any blackmailing and will not come under any pressure. No political party is a favourite of the election commission neither nor any is non-favourite. Those who are following the law are standing with the ECP.\u201d
\nWhen the attention of these sources was drawn to the announcement of PTI Chairman Imran Khan to file a judicial reference against the ECP and the CEC, they said that this was an attempt to create a smoke screen ahead of the verdict.
\nThe investigations into international money laundering have been completed, they added.
\nPTI hid funds worth millions of rupees from ECP: report
\nPTI hid funds worth millions of rupees from the ECP, the report of an ECP scrutiny committee probing the party\u2019s funds revealed on January 4.
\nThe report stated that the PTI provided \u201cfalse information\u201d regarding the party\u2019s funding to the ECP. It said that the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP\u2019s) bank statement revealed that the party had received Rs1.64 billion in funding.
\nAccording to the report, the party did not disclose funding worth more than Rs310 million to the ECP.
\nThe scrutiny committee was formed in 2019 to audit foreign funding received by the PTI.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) Monday said PTI\u2019s foreign funding case verdict \u2014 which was reserved on June 21 \u2014 will be announced today at 10am. The election commission today released the cause list for the prohibited funding case. According to the cause list, the verdict will be announced by a three-member bench […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":260977,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[2083,39,2606,158,5643],"class_list":{"0":"post-275021","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-top-news","8":"tag-case","9":"tag-ecp","10":"tag-foreign-funding","11":"tag-pti","12":"tag-verdict"},"yoast_head":"\n