ECP has not shared nomination papers with SBP, FBR, NAB, Nadra, others

ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has not shared nomination papers of candidates for contesting general elections 2018 with the State Bank of Pakistan, Federal Board of Revenue, National Accountability Bureau, Nadra and others but assigned the task to undertake futile verification exercise on the name of scrutiny for complying provisions of article 62 and 63 of 1973 Constitution.

“It was simply a farce exercise done on the name of verification of candidates contesting general elections 2018. The nomination papers filed by candidates have not been shared with the departments so no meaningful exercise could be done in short span of couple of days to identify candidates owning assets beyond their means or potential tax defaulters,” official sources from all relevant departments confirmed to The News here on Thursday.

The Returning Officers (RO) from all across the country were found clueless about the verification exercise as one RO from Sindh contacted to the FBR and complained that one candidate declared assets in his nomination paper but the FBR record showed that he had paid meager amount in last three years record so how he could undertake verification knowingly that he possessed substantial assets but contributed peanuts into national kitty.

The FBR high-ups replied that they had shared information with the ECP what they have sought from them. The ECP had sought three year tax filed by the contesting candidates. For undertaking effective verification, the official said that it required information about income, assets, expenditure and accounts and without sharing anything substantial they were assigned to undertake a futile exercise

“If the ECP had shared nomination papers with all relevant departments and sufficient time of 7 to 10 days would have been given then the departments might be in position to generate report about discrepancies by cross checking their own records and declared by candidates in their nomination papers,” said the official.

The ECP has sent out 19878 cases for verification to theFBR in last three days out of which the FBR had verified 19819 so far. “We have almost found nil default as the ECP asked us to furnish filed income of last three years,” said the official. The FBR has found three to four defaulters on payment of tax from its record out of total 19819 cases of contesting candidates and none of them was any mainstream political figure, they added.

The ECP has dispatched 60 more cases to FBR and total pendency on part of the FBR stood at less than 100 on Thursday afternoon. For undertaking verification well on time and in compliance with the directives of the ECP, the FBR on Thursday issued official circular that all offices undertaking assignment of verification for candidates of 2018 election will remain open on Monday (June 18, 2018) for scrutiny duty.

On other hand, the SBP has obtained information through Credit Information Bureau (CIB) to identify those who had defaulted on even meager amount and shared information with the ECP in last few days. The CIB is online system connecting with all banks and it shows details of loan defaults and its information is made available on the basis of CNIC number to the management of banks.

One top official of SBP said that the CIB information was shared with the ECP to identify all those who fell into category of loan default in line with placed definition so this verification exercise in the presence of CIB would help barring loan defaulters from contesting general elections.