PTI's request to cross-examine funding case witnesses rejected.

ISLAMABAD -- The EleAcAtion Commission of PakAisAtan (ECP) on Wednesday rejected Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf's (PTI) application seeking to cross-examine witnesses in the prohibited funding case against it.

Headed by Chief ElecAtion Commissioner SikanAdar Sultan Raja, a three-member ECP bench also rejected PTI's objections to the show-cause notice issued to it by the ECP secretary and decided to proceed with it.

The commission while anAnouncing the verdict resAerved on Dec 20 also dismissed the plea for cross-examination of the ECP scrutiny committee and the bankers concerned.

The ECP, in a unanimous decision, had ruled in August last year that the PTI received prohibited funding and issued a notice to the party asking why the funds should not be confiscated.

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In the written verdict, the commission noted that the party 'knowingly and willfully' received funding from Wootton Cricket Limited, operated by business tycoon Arif Naqvi. It said the party was a 'willing recipient' of the prohibited money to the tune of $2,121,500 (or over Rs597 million at current foreign exchange rate). The ECP said that the PTI 'knowingly and willfully' also received donations from Bristol Engineering Services (a UAE-based company), E-Planet TrusAtAees (a Cayman Islands priAvate registered company), SS Marketing Manchester (a UK-based private company), PTI USA LLC-6160 and PTI USA LLC-5975 which were 'hit by prohibition and in violation of Pakistani laws'.

The ECP noted that the PTI had owned only eight of its accounts before the commission while declaring 13 other accounts 'unknown'. 'The data obtaAined from the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) reveals that all the 13 accounts disowned by the PTI were opened and operated by senior PTI management and leadership at central and provincial level,' it said.

Instead of responding to the show-cause notice, the PTI had filed a fresh application seeking cross-exaAmAiAnation of key witnesses.

When during the course of hearing on Wednesday, CEC Raja questioned the progress of the case before the Islamabad High Court, the PTI lawyer replied that the...