Most of PM’s unelected aides haven’t shared asset details with cabinet division

ISLAMABAD: Majority of the unelected advisers and special assistants to the Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif have not shared their assets details with the cabinet division for making the same public on the cabinet division’s official website.

According to sources, these advisers and special assistants are violating the cabinet decision taken during Imran Khan’s tenure for transparency and public interest. Those special assistants, who are members of the parliament, however, are not supposed to share these details with the cabinet division as their annual wealth statements are already notified by the Election Commission of Pakistan.

The advisers and special assistants are also required to declare their nationality and make it public on the cabinet division’s official website but here too the nationality of only eleven have been made public.

Informed sources said that the cabinet division occasionally reminds these cabinet members and also informs the Prime Minister, but to no avail. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has four advisers — Qamar Zaman Kaira, Engineer Amir Muqam, Awn Chaudhry and Ahad Khan Cheema. According to the cabinet division’s website, only Qamar Zaman Kaira and Engineer Amir Muqam’s assets details are public. Awn Chaudhry and Ahad Khan Cheema have only declared their nationality.

Out of 29 Special Assistants to the Prime Minister, only five have made their assets public through the cabinet division’s website. These include Syed Tariq Fatemi, Ms Shaza Fatima Khawaja, Muhammad Owais Siddiqui, Sadiq Iftikhar and Tasneem Ahmad Qureshi. All these advisers have also declared their nationality. Attaullah Tarar and Ambassador ® Muhammad Sadiq have declared their nationality but their assets details is not available on the cabinet division’s website.

Others special assistants to the PM, whose assets details as well as nationality declaration are missing on the cabinet website, include Syed Fahd Husain, Muhammad Jehanzeb Khan, Malik Muhammad Ahmad Khan, Mr Rubina Irfan, Malik Abdul Ghaffar Dogar, Shaharyar Ali Khan, Faisal Karim Kundi, Sardar Saleem Haider, Muhammad Ali Shah Bacha, Sardar Shahjehan Yousaf, Malik Nauman Ahmad Langrial, Irfan Qadir and Tariq Bajwa.

SAPMs — Senator Hafiz Abdul Karim, MNA Muhammad Junaid Anwar Chaudhry, MNA Sheikh Fayyaz Ud Din, MNA Ms Romania Khurshid Alam, MNA Nawabzada Iftikhar Ahmed Khan Babar, MNA Mahar Irshad Ahmad, MNA Raza Rabani Khar, MNA Mahesh Kumar Malani are elected members of the parliament, and they are not supposed to share their assets details with the cabinet division.

The Election Commission of Pakistan annually notifies the assets and liabilities of the MPs as declared by them; however, these details are not placed on the official website of the Election Commission. Initially, in the past, these details were made available online for the public but later the MPs amended the law and restricted the ECP from posting their assets’ details on the ECP website. However, the hard copy of the notification of the assets and liabilities of the MPs could be obtained by anyone.