Court stops action against ex-speaker, Suri 'ignores' FIA notice.

ISLAMABAD -- Further seeking reprieve from courts in the prohibited funding case, a Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) staffer challenged the call-up notice issued to him by the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) in its ongoing probe into the case, while the Peshawar High Court restrained the FIA from taking any action against former National Assembly speaker Asad Qaiser.

Muhammad Nauman Afzal, deputy director of the Party Management Cell, was among the four PTI officials authorised to receive funds from Pakistan and abroad. Others included telephone operator Tahir Iqbal, accountant Muhammad Arshad and office helper Muhammad Rafiq, as per the Election Commission of Pakistan's findings.

According to Akbar S Babar, the estranged PTI leader and complainant in the prohibited funding case, Rs11.104 million had been deposited in the accounts of the four employees, which was beyond their known sources of income.

Afzal contended in the petition that 'opening and maintaining of those accounts had never been disputed by the complainant...Those accounts were (admittedly) never used for any funding of an enlisted political party and no such finding was recorded by the Election Commission'.

He further contended that the ECP had not directed the FIA to inquire into any aspect of these accounts. These matters exclusively fell within the jurisdiction of the ECP, and not of the FIA, he maintained. The petition requested the court to set aside the FIA's call-up notice for being issued without any legal backing.

PHC order on Qaiser's plea

Meanwhile, the Peshawar High Court stopped the FIA from taking any adverse action against Mr Qaiser and sought comments from the agency over his plea against the initiation of an inquiry into two bank accounts of the PTI in Peshawar.

A bench comprising Justice Shakeel Ahmad and Justice Kamran Hayat Miankhel ordered the comments be filed within a fortnight and also include the documents showing the matter had been referred by the ECP to the federal government for taking legal action against the petitioner.

The bench directed the court's office to fix for hearing in the last week of August the petition that requested the court to set aside a notice issued by the FIA to Qaiser to appear before an inquiry officer in connection with the probe into two bank accounts managed by the former speaker from 2018 till 2013 as the PTI provincial head. The petitioner wants the inquiry to be declared illegal...