Imran Khan asks his party 'not to worry' in foreign funding case

After the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) ordered hearing of the foreign funding case against the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) on a daily basis, Prime Minister Imran Khan assured his party leaders not to worry about the case.

Addressing a meeting with government spokespersons at Prime Minister Office, Khan said that the PTI had already got an audit of the party funds conducted and its proof had been submitted to the courts and relevant forums, Dawn reported.

Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Information Firdous Ashiq Awan said Khan was of the view that the ECP could try any case, but it was the government's request to hear cases of all three major parties -- PTI, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) simultaneously.

"We have already filed applications in the ECP for probing the party funding of PPP and PML-N; therefore, we demand that the commission should hear cases of three parties at the same time and not to single out PTI," the Prime Minister was quoted as saying.

"Party members should not be worried regarding the foreign funding case because party funds have already been audited and their reports have been presented before the courts," he added.

The order of day-to-day hearing came after the opposition's Rehbar Committee on Wednesday submitted an application, asking the ECP to decide the case before the expiry of the chief election commissioner's term next month.

The application pointed out that the foreign funding case against the PTI had been pending with the ECP for the past five years.

"We urge that in the interest of justice the case may be heard on a daily basis and decided at the earliest during the term of the Commission [CEC]," it stated.

The foreign funding case is fixed for hearing before the scrutiny committee on Nov 26.

The scrutiny committee during its last meeting on Nov 12 had been told that a writ petition of the party was pending before the Islamabad High Court and it was unable to attend its meeting till a decision by the court and appointment of a new lead lawyer.