IHC reserves verdict in prohibited funding case.

ISLAMABAD -- The Islamabad High Court (IHC) Wednesday reserved its verdict on Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf's (PTI) plea against the Election Commission of Pakistan's (ECP) ruling in the prohibited funding case.

The ECP had, in August last year, ruled that the party had received "illicit" funds and donations from the United States, Australia, Canada, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

A larger bench of the IHC - headed by IHC Chief Justice Aamer Farooq and comprising Justice Miangul Hassan and Justice Babar Sattar - heard the case.

Ahead of reserving the verdict, IHC Chief Justice Aamer Farooq remarked that the court exists to make legal decisions and not resolve political matters. He added that the ECP was only supposed to work constitutionally, which was limited to the confiscation of funds.

The IHC has told the election commission that if the party succeeds in proving that its funding was not prohibited, then the ECP would have to take back its August decision.

Addressing the ECP's counsel, Justice Farooq said that the court will make it clear that the issuance of show cause is done with a purpose, it isn't an aimless action. "If the ECP is determined to stick with its original decision, then the show cause has no point."

Justice Sattar remarked that the ECP is an autonomous institution asking the PTI to satisfy the electoral body.

The ECP's counsel, meanwhile, said that if the PTI is able to satisfy the commission about new evidence related to the funding and that it is not illicit, then their funds won't be confiscated.

PTI's lawyer Anwar Mansoor Khan said the ECP, while declaring the PTI as a...