ISLAMABAD - The Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) on Wednesday submitted a memorandum to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) asking the Commission to announce verdict of PTI foreign funding case with no further delay.

The memorandum submitted by the delegation of PDM led by Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) senior leader Ahsan Iqbal and Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) leader and former prime minister Raja Pervaz Ashraf stated that due to failure of the ECP to decide six-year-old case against PTI, the commission had lost its dignity, image and role in maintaining transparency.

The memorandum further stated that why ECP was giving more chances to PTI to use delaying tactics despite the fact that ECP itself in October 2019 had claimed that PTI was using delaying tactics in the case. The memorandum while raising reservations over the status of scrutiny committee said that the Com-mission itself had termed the report submitted by the committee as incomplete but still the commission once again gave task to that committee despite its failure.

The PDM leadership in the memorandum pointed out that the PTI in January, 2021, had already confessed to receiving foreign funding while the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) had also provided solid evidence with documents to the Com-mission; saying that there was no need for further investigation in the case.

The memorandum further elaborated that PTI had frequently pressuring the se-curity committee and the committee itself has several times shown its annoy-ance over the meddling of PTI in scrutiny process. The memorandum further pointed out that the PTI foreign funding case had an important aspect of na-tional security as Imran Khan had allegedly taken funds from the enemies of Pakistan and ECP should not further delay the verdict of the case as it will be the violation of constitution.

The PDM leaders also demanded the ECP provide petitioner with all documents including written document from the PTI and details of 23 secret accounts of the PTI as provided by the SBP to the Commission. 

The memorandum also demanded that the record should also be made public in order to ensure transparency, the proceedings should not be kept in-camera and the same should be open to the PDM leaders and the media. 

At the end the memorandum also demanded the commission to provide security to the petitioner Akbar S Baber as he was receiving frequent life threats.

While talking to the media after submitting the memorandum, Ihsan Iqbal along with other leaders said that the Commission should announce the verdict of the case with no further delay. He stated that the ECP can restore its image if the decision was announced on merit.

Former Prime Minister Raja Pervaz Ashraf said that they had all the evidences against PTI and the Commission should not waste anymore time. He maintained that if PTI had any evidences against any other party then they should also bring the evidences to the Commission.

Meanwhile, the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Raja Sikandar Sultan in his meeting with the PDM leadership assured them of announcing the verdict with no delay and completely on merit.