ECP restores membership of 25 parliamentarians

ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) Tuesday reinstated the membership of 25 parliamentarians from the National Assembly and Senate including Defence Minister Khawaja Asif and Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal among 25 others following the submission of their annual financial statements.

A day ago, the electoral body suspended the membership of 271 parliamentarians for failure to submit details of their annual financial records. As per the ECP's notification, membership of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf's (PTI) dissident member Raja Riaz Ahmed — who is also Leader of the Opposition in the parliament's Lower House, Raza Rabbani, Syed Basit Ahmad Sultan, Shaza Fatima Khawaja, Musarrat Asif Khawaja, Shahida Rahman and others have also been restored. In addition to this, the membership of Ahmad Khan, Anwarul Haq Kakar and two others has been restored in the Senate. Membership of 21 lawmakers in the NA and four in the Senate have been restored today.

It should be noted that those suspended include 136 members from the parliament’s Lower House and 21 from the Upper House. On Monday, the electoral authority also suspended the membership of provincial assembly members including 48, 12 and 54 from Sindh, Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa respectively.

Every member of an assembly and senate is liable to submit relevant details of their assets and liabilities to the election commission before December 31 every year. The members must also disclose the financial statements of their spouse and dependent children on Form-B every year on June 30.

"In pursuance of sub-section (3) of Section 137 ibid and in the exercise of all other powers enabling it on that behalf, the Election Commission is pleased to notify hereunder, for information of the general public, the names of members of the Senate who have failed to file their statement of assets and liabilities including assets and liabilities," the ECP notification had read.

Prominent senators who have had their membership suspended include PTI's Sania Nishtar, Azam Swati, Aon Abbas, and Zarqa Suharwardy Taimur; Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Senator Kamran Michael; and Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) senators Taj Haider and Syed Waqar Mehdi, among others.

Suspended members of the Lower House include Chairman Public Accounts Committee Noor Alam Khan, PTI’s Asad Umar, Murad Saeed Omar Ayub Khan, Asad Qaiser, Shehryar Afridi, Ali Amin Gandapur, Noor Ul Haq Qadri, Zartaj Gul, Andleeb Abbas, Maleeka Bokhari, Alamgir Khan, Ali Zaidi and Abdul Shakoor Shad. Fehmida Mirza of the Grand Democratic Alliance has also faced suspension of her membership.

The list also includes names of PTI’s dissident member Raja Riaz Ahmad. PPP members Ali Musa Gilani, Naveed Qamar, Shahid Rehmani and PML-Quaid member Tariq Bashir Cheema’s membership has also been suspended, alongside PML-N’s Khawaja Asif, Ahsan Iqbal and Mohsin Nawaz Ranjha among others.

Membership of Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan’s Convener Dr Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui had also been suspended.