A three-member bench of the ECP announced the unanimous verdict in a case filed by PTI founder member Akbar S Babar, which was pending since November 2014.
The bench included Chief Election Commissioner Sikandar Sultan Raja, Nisar Ahmed Durrani and Shah Muhammad Jatoi.
The commission said that PTI had received money from 34 foreign nationals and business tycoon Arif Naqvi.
According to Dawn newspaper, the ECP also said that PTI also received donations from Romita Shetty, an American business woman of Indian origin, which was against the rules.
Interestingly, the ECP’s decision comes after a recent report in The Financial Times newspaper titled ‘The strange case of a cricket match that helped Khan’s political rise’.
According to the Dawn newspaper, in the written decision, the ECP noted that PTI “deliberately” received $21,21,500 in funds from Wootton Cricket Ltd.
It said that PTI Pakistan received donations from 34 foreign nationals and 351 foreign-based companies through fund raising operations of PTI USA LLC-6160 and PTI USA LLC-5975.
The ECP said the party also received donations through PTI Canada Corporation and PTI UK Public Limited Company.
It announced that the party kept 13 accounts secret, another violation of Pakistan’s constitution.
Babar, the petitioner in the case, said that this is a step towards ending the “fascism” of PTI.
There was no immediate reaction from PTI chief Khan on the ECP’s decision.
PTI leader Fawad Chaudhry said most of the money for the party came from foreign Pakistanis, and the ECP’s decision proved that it was not a case of “foreign funding”.
