ISLAMABAD: The ruling Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) on Thursday submitted more documents with the scrutiny committee of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) auditing its accounts, informed sources told Dawn.

The documents, the sources said, had been submitted in response to the committee’s latest questionnaire.

The committee, which met on Thursday after a gap of more than two months, has now sought time for reviewing the latest documents submitted by the PTI. The committee, however, refused to share the new documents with the petitioner Akbar S Babar.

Mr Babar in a statement said if forensic audit of 10 companies could be completed in a few weeks for the sugar scam, a detailed forensic audit of the PTI accounts should not have taken almost three years now. He said the people wanted an early conclusion of the long delayed case. The ECP, he said, should hear and conclude the case pending for over six years.

Meanwhile, Additional District Judge, Islamabad, Muhammad Ali Warraich dismissed the defamation case filed by the PTI on behalf of Prime Minister Imran Khan against PTI’s founding member Akbar S Babar.

The case had been registered in July last year, alleging defamation and seeking recovery of Rs5 billion from Mr Babar on account of damages for criticising the PTI policies on the social media.

Badar Iqbal Chaudhry had appeared in the case on behalf of Mr Babar while Hassan Rasheed Qamar represented the PTI. Badar Iqbal Chaudhry is also part of the legal team led by Syed Ahmad Hassan Shah in the PTI foreign funding case.

Published in Dawn, December 25th, 2020