Contempt plea filed against PTI for 'boycott' of scrutiny body's meeting.

Byline: Iftikhar A. Khan

ISLAMABAD -- An application has been filed in the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), seeking contempt proceedings against the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) leadership for a walkout by the party's lawyers and financial team from a meeting of the scrutiny committee held on Wednesday.

Informed sources told Dawn that the application has been filed by the petitioner of the foreign funding case, Akbar S. Babar, through his counsel.

The PTI team of lawyers and financial representatives had protested the detailed ECP order of Oct 10 whereby it had rejected all four PTI applications seeking secrecy of scrutiny and barring the petitioner of the foreign funding case from attending the scrutiny committee's meetings. The order also raised a serious objecAtion over Deputy Attorney General Saqlain Haider representing a political party before it.

The order states: 'Saqlain Haider, learned counsel for the respondent who is stated to have been appointed as Deputy Attorney General, had no right to appear for political party against the interest of the state.'

It further states that the PTI lawyer 'should rather protect the state and not the party which are two completely different entities' and that 'the learned counsel should have preferred the state over the interests of a political party after his...