ECP bars 314 political parties from contesting polls

ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has barred those political parties which failed to submit their financial records on time, from contesting future elections as filing of account details is a legal requirement.

There are as many as 345 political parties ‘registered’ with the ECP but only 31 submitted their financial records before the expiry of the final date. The ECP issued a statement, which said, "Political parties that did not submit their financial records before the final submission date [August 29] will not be allowed to contest any future elections, they will not be assigned election symbols".

It may be mentioned here that the ban would stay till the time, these parties submit their assets' details to the ECP and only then, a party will become eligible to contest election.

Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan, Pakistan Muslim League-Functional (PML-F), PML-Zia, PML-Junejo and Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party are among the parties that have failed so far to submit their records to the electoral body.

According to Article 14 of the Political Parties Order 2002, a party, which does not submit its bank statements under Article 13, will not be eligible for obtaining an election symbol to contest elections for parliament and the provincial assemblies.

The ECP has been reminding all political parties to submit a consolidated statement of their bank accounts on Form-1 duly audited by a chartered accountant within 60 days of the close of each financial year.