ISLAMABAD: The perusal of PTI’s financial documents concluded on Thursday as the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) neither accepted nor rejected the latest application by the petitioner to extend the process by three days to allow review of all original PTI bank statements requisitioned through the State Bank of Pakistan.

The perusal was to conclude on Wednesday but was extended by three hours by the ECP Scrutiny Committee, to complete 40 hours of perusal allowed by the commission in its order of April 14.

The petitioner Akbar S Babar filed an application for perusal of original PTI bank statements that were kept secret by the scrutiny committee from the perusal process. Sources revealed that not a single original PTI bank statement has been allowed to be perused including the 23 PTI bank statements requisitioned by the State Bank of Pakistan. In October 2018, a member of the original scrutiny committee had demanded answers from PTI on millions of dollars received in those accounts. Instead of providing answers, the auditor was removed from the committee.

The two financial analysts of the petitioner conducted exhaustive scrutiny of PTI documents put before them in the allotted 40 hours spread over several days, they added. Unless the ECP or the committee allows perusal of original PTI bank statements, the attention would now shift to the petitioner and the scrutiny committee to finalise and submit their findings before the ECP by the end of this month.

Talking to the media at the conclusion of the perusal process, the petitioner and PTI founding member Mr Babar termed the hurdles created to impede the perusal process, by the scrutiny committee, unfortunate.

He said the information shared for perusal is only the “tip of the iceberg” but the iceberg of the mega funding scam is huge. Once the report is finalised in the next few days, it would be submitted before the ECP and made public. He said “a billion rupee benami tsunami” will hit PTI as soon as the report is made public.

Mr Babar also challenged Prime Minister Imran Khan to a live TV debate on the foreign funding case to let the people know facts firsthand and decide who is honest. The prime minister’s voice has lost credibility, he said, adding people in general and PTI’s rank and file in particular have been let down by a government that has no clue how to govern and deliver.

Real estate scams in the party ignored in 2011, have now engulfed the government with the latest Ring Road Scam. He said PTI will be purged of corruption and refurbished, and the foreign funding case would prove decisive in this endeavour.

He reiterated that if the petitioner can peruse PTI documents in 40 hours, why did it take over three years for the scrutiny committee to do so and still remain inconclusive. Answers will be sought and those responsible for hiding facts will be held accountable.

Published in Dawn, May 21st, 2021