ECP issues list: 600 MPs fail to submit details of assets, liabilities

ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Thursday released a list of nearly 600 members of parliament and four provincial assemblies for their failure to submit the details of their assets and liabilities and those of other members of the family.

Those who have been mentioned in the list, include some members of the federal cabinet besides two chief ministers, of Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Murad Ali Shah and Mahmood Khan respectively, and members of provincial legislatures, including provincial ministers.

Under the law, all the legislators are required every year by December 31 to file the related documents to the electoral body, which has the mandate to carry out scrutiny of the same, if it deems fit and find discrepancies. On non-compliance, the Election Commission bars them from performing their duties as legislators and their membership can be restored on compliance with the legal requirement.

The members of the federal cabinet, who have not been able so far to comply with this requirement, can be barred from performing their official duties. The Election Commission, traditionally, gives two more weeks to the legislators besides the deadline and after that the names of non-compliers are notified and the relevant legislatures are moved to bar them from attending sessions.

Defence Minister Pervaiz Khattak, Law Minister Barrister Farogh Naseem, Education Minister Shafqat Mehmood, Minister for Railways Sh Rashid Ahmad are among the cabinet members,who could not submit the related documents to the Election Commission.

Likewise, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, Asif Ali Zardari, Mian Raza Rabbani, Mir Hasil Khan Bizenjo, Anwarul Haq Kakar and Sarfraz Bugti are also among the non-compliers. As per the list issued earlier Thursday, 166 MNAs, 32 senators, 190 members of the Punjab Assembly, 85 members of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly, 82 members of Sindh Assembly and 40 members of Balochistan Assembly have yet to file their statement of assets and liabilities with the Election Commission.

Last year, on first day of January 1, 2019, as many as 688 members of parliament and legislators, belonging to the four provincial assemblies, had failed to submit details of their assets to the Election Commission of Pakistan. The Election Commission had issued a statement, containing names of the legislators and their constituencies and they were issued a final notice to fulfill the legal requirement by January 15.