The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Saturday clarified that it never said the PTI foreign funding case would be closed in 15 days. The ECP maintained that it had only decided to hear the case on a daily basis.
On the other hand, Chief Election Commission Justice (r) Sardar Raza has written a letter to the secretary parliamentary affairs to inform him that his constitutional term will expire on December 6. He urged the government to take steps to appoint a new chief election commissioner. “If steps are not taken to appoint a new chief election commissioner, the ECP will become inactive on December 7,” he stated in his letter. In the letter, the CEC also said that two members of the election commission from Sindh and Balochistan have already retired. He cautioned that in the absence of the chief election commissioner and the two members, the ECP will be unable to make any decisions. “The ECP won’t be able to even conduct by-elections or local government elections,” he stated in the letter. Meanwhile, Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Media Affairs Iftikhar Durrani Saturday said there is no truth to the opposition’s claim regarding foreign funding case against PTI. He maintained that PML-N leader Hanif Abbasi could not prove foreign funding allegations against PTI in the Supreme Court in 2017 either.
Punjab Minister for Colonies Fayyaz-ul-Hassan Chohan said that the foreign funding case against PTI has been lodged to ‘blackmail’ the party.
