Reply sought on plea against ECP

LAHORE

Justice Mansoor Ali Shah of Lahore High Court on Thursday sought a reply from the election commission of Pakistan (ECP) challenging the removal of the details of assets and liabilities of parliamentarians including Prime Minister Mian Nawaz Sharif, Finance Minister Ishaq Dar, PM’s son-in-law Safdar and others from ECP website.

The judge ordered the ECP’s counsel to submit reply till May 6. An advocate, Shabbir Ismail, moved the petition. The petitioner counsel said that the ECP had removed the details of assets from its website.

He said under Article 19-A of the Constitution read with Right of Information and Transparency Act, the ECP had not authority to remove such list from website. He alleged that this action was an attempt to corrupt parliamentarians in order to replace the statement by adding or removing the assets including offshore companies.

He submitted that ECP, by doing so, had taken a step to cover the alleged corruption of the rulers. He said it had also deprived the citizens of important information, which was the Constitutional right of every citizen. He said that this action of the ECP was fraud and illegal, without jurisdiction and malafie. He requested to direct the ECP to place on website the details of assets, liabilities and annual returns filed with by these parliamentarians.