Election-Commission-of-PakistanThe Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) on Tuesday filed a foreign funding case against the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) in the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP).
Talking to media after submitting the petition in ECP, PTI lawmaker Farrukh Habib said former JUI-F senior leader Hafiz Hussain Ahmed has admitted that party chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman and other members had received funds from different countries. The petition also includes the transcript of a TV interview of Hafiz Hussain Ahmed in which he spoke about party chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman receiving funding from Iraq and Libya. “Several JUI-F leaders, including Maulana Fazlur Rehman, used to visit Libya and Iraq on a regular basis,” the petition contends, and calls for action to be taken against the party according to the Election Act. Habib said that the ECP has been asked to summon Fazl and Ahmed and inquire about the funding. “The sources through which Fazlur Rehman made his properties will be revealed,” the MNA said. “It will also reveal the source from where the anti-government campaign in the country was funded,” he further maintained. The ECP has the power to summon Fazlur Rehman and take action, he said, adding that the foreign-funded parties have come together. “You don’t care about Islam, you care about Islamabad,” he said while referring to Fazl.
Habib urged Fazl to explain his agenda for taking money from Iraq and Libya and “submit the receipts if your hands are clean”. “Nawaz Sharif took [funding] from Osama bin Laden in the name of the Islamic system and ending a woman’s rule,” Habib claimed. “Maryam Safdar should also come to the ECP with her receipts,” the PTI MNA stated. He further added that videos and petitions had also been submitted to the ECP.
Habib said that there was no objection to the proceedings of the scrutiny committee being public but this decision was to be taken by the ECP. “If the PTI took action regarding foreign funding itself, it will then be accused of carrying out political revenge,” he said. “It would be better that the Election Commission completes its work first, the rest of the institutions will then do their job,” Habib said.
The ruling party’s petition against JUI-F comes days after Fazl hollered at the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf-led federal government. “We do not believe in either Imran Khan or Israel,” he bellowed, accusing the premier of having received funding from Israel and India for the 2018 general elections. Addressing the rally at Quaid-e-Azam’s Mausoleum on January 22, Fazl had said that it was out of question to recognise a country that stands starkly against Pakistan.
Referring to the adjournment of Tuesday’s meeting of the ECP scrutiny committee, owing to the absence of PTI’s counsel Shah Khawar in the foreign funding case, Habib stated that Khawar will be present at the next hearing. “He could not attend the meeting owing to his engagement in the court,” the PTI MNA said.
