688 MPs fail to file asset details with ECP

ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) Tuesday released the list of 688 members of the Parliament as well as four provincial legislatures, who have failed so far to submit their statement of assets and liabilities and those of their independents by December 31 with the Election Commission. According to the statistics shared by the ECP, just 483 lawmakers managed to comply with the legal requirement, which bounds them to annually file the details of their assets and liabilities and of their dependents. The Senate consists of a total of 104 members, the National Assembly 342 members, Punjab Assembly 371 members, Sindh Assembly 168 members, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly 124 members and Balochistan Assembly 65 members.

Section 137 of the Elections Act, 2017, binds each lawmaker to file the statement of his/her assets with the ECP every year and its sub-section says that the Commission on the first day of January each year through a press release, shall public the names of members, who failed to submit the requisite documents within the stipulated period.

Those, who have failed to file the documents, include 43 senators, 187 MNAs, 258 Punjab Assembly members, 86 Sindh Assembly members, 80 Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly members and 34 members of Balochistan Assembly. Similarly, three of as many provincial assemblies are lying vacant and they are: PS-94, Karachi, PK-30, Mansehra and PB-26, Quetta.

The ECP issued a final notice to the non-filing legislators, who have been asked to submit the needful by till 5pm on January 15 to do so, after which their membership will be suspended and they would not be able to discharge their responsibilities as such, including members of the cabinets as well.

The list comprises notable politicians including: Federal Minister for Religious Affairs and Interfaith Harmony Pir Noorul Haq Qadri, Minister for Information and Broadcasting Chaudhry Fawad Hussain, Law Minister Farogh Nasim, Minister of State for Interior Shehryar Khan Afridi, Minister for Defence Production Zubaida Jalal, Minister for Petroleum and Natural Resources Ghulam Sarwar Khan, Education Minister Shafqat Mehmood, former prime ministers Raja Pervaiz Ashraf and Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, PML-N's Ahsan Iqbal and Khursheed Shah of PPP.

Those who have submitted the related documents to the Election Commission include: Prime Minister Imran Khan, Leader of Opposition in the National Assembly and chairman of the Public Accounts Committee Shahbaz Sharif, PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, President of the PPP-Parliamentarians Asif Ali Zardari.

The Election Commission had called on the legislators to submit their statements of assets for the financial year ending on June 30, 2018. On December 3, the Election Commission had issued notifications, asking the federal and provincial legislators to file their yearly statements of assets and liabilities, as well as of their spouses and dependents, by Dec. 31, 2018.

Sub-section 3 of the Act says that the commission shall, on the sixteenth day of January, by an order suspend the membership of a member of an assembly and the Senate who fails to submit the statement of assets and liabilities by the fifteenth day of January and such member shall cease to function till he files the statement of assets and liabilities.

Sub-section 4 says, where a member submits the statement of assets and liabilities under this section which is found to be false in material particulars, he may, within one hundred and twenty days from the date submission of the statement, be proceeded against for committing the offence of corrupt practice.

As per the Section 138 of the Act, the Commission shall publish in the official Gazette the statements of assets and liabilities received by it under Section 137.