A meeting of the Election Commission of Pakistan's (ECP) scrutiny committee conducting a fresh audit of accounts of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) has been put on hold for an indefinite period citing a surge in COVID-19 cases, according to sources.
According to a report by Dawn, the committee was scheduled to meet on Wednesday, but the meeting was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The fresh date will be announced later.
The committee was tasked to conduct a fresh audit of accounts of the PTI "as soon as possible".
A poll panel official has been quoted as saying that the meeting has been put on hold "in compliance with a circular issued by the commission last week to ensure the safety of the people in the wake of rising cases of coronavirus across the country".
It is interesting to highlight that the committee, chaired by ECP's Director General for law, was established in March 2018 and was supposed to complete the audit within a month. The term was extended and on June 2 this year, the commission had asked the committee to file its report by August 17. The committee had submitted its report on August 13 but was rejected for being "neither complete nor well-detailed".
While slamming the committee, the ECP said in its order on August 27, "The scrutiny committee, on the basis of the documents provided by both parties and collected from the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), has neither scrutinised the record nor evaluated the evidence from the documents and it has also failed to form a definite opinion."
( With inputs from ANI )
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