ECP suspends membership of 154 legislators

ISLAMABAD: The ECP Monday suspended the membership of 154 legislators of the Senate, the National Assembly and the four provincial assemblies, including federal ministers, for failing to submit details of assets within the stipulated time period.

According to a statement, issued by the ECP, the suspended legislators include three senators, 48 MNAs and 103 MPAs. Fawad Chaudhry, Dr Fehmida Mirza and Ali Haider Zaidi are among the federal ministers, whose membership was suspended for not submitting details of their assets and liabilities and of their dependants.

Apart from them, the suspended 48 members of the National Assembly include Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui, Maiza Hameed, Rohila Asghar, Sardar Mohammad Khan Leghari, Mir Khan Mohammad Jamali, J Prakash, Thomas James and others.

The membership of senators Musadik Masood Malik, Kamran Michael and Shamim Afridi has also been suspended.

The suspended MPAs include 52 members of the Punjab Assembly, 26 of the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Assembly, 19 of the Sindh Assembly and six members of the Balochistan Assembly.

The suspended members of the Punjab Assembly include Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan (who has not yet taken oath), Rana Muhammad Afzal, Sardar Owais Khan Leghari, Muhammad Sabteen Raza, Chaudhry Mazhar Iqbal and others.

Similarly, members of Sindh Assembly include Provincial Minister Syed Sardar Shah, Hasnain Ali Mirza, Sardar Khan Chandio, Ikramullah Niazi, Qazi Shamsuddin, Mukesh Kumar Chawla, Syed Zia Abbas Shah and others. The suspended members of the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Assembly include Shaukat Ali, Humayun Khan, Ikramullah Khan Gandapur, Arbab Jehandad Khan, Sahibzada Sanaullah, Anita Mehsud and others.

The six suspended members of the Balochistan Assembly are Sardar Yar Mohammad Rind, Akhtar Hussain Langu, Noorullah, Masood Ali Khan, Mohammad Akbar and Bibi Shahina.

Out of total 1,195 legislators from the Parliament and the four provincial assemblies, 394 members of Parliament, including eight ministers, had not submitted their asset details to the commission even after Dec 31 deadline.

Under Section 137 of the Election Act, each member of the Senate and the assemblies shall submit to the Election Commission the details of assets, liabilities of himself, his spouse and children under his custody by December 31 of each year.