Two federal ministers are among 154 legislators of National Assembly, Senate and provincial assembles who may cease to function for their failure to submit the statements of assets and liabilities by October 15 deadline with the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP).
The Election Commission on Monday notified the names of 154 legislators who failed to file their statements by Monday afternoon. Out of total 1,174 Senators, MNAs and MPAs, 1,006 submitted details of their assets. Assets declarations were not submitted on 14 seats which are vacant. The Senate and the National Assembly and four provincial assemblies comprise 1,174 members, of which, 1,006 have complied with the legal requirement while the remaining have yet to do so.
According to the notification, out of total 342 members of the National Assembly, so far, 307 filed their statements and documents, from 31 these statements are still awaited while 4 seats are vacant. As for the Senate, 96 senators have fulfilled the requirement, whereas 8 failed to do so. The Punjab Assembly consists of 371 legislators, 281 have filed their documents, 82 of them are non-compliers while eight seats of the assembly are vacant.
Out of 168-member Sindh Assembly, 152 have so far submitted their statements of assets and liabilities with the Commission, whereas the documents from 14 are awaited while two seats are lying vacant. Similarly, Khyber Pakhtunkhawa Assembly consists of 124 members...108 have filed the documents while 16 are yet to do so. Whereas, out of 65 lawmakers of the Balochistan Assembly, 62 have filed the statements of assets, documents from three are still awaited.
Hence, overall, 85.69 percent of them have fulfilled the legal requirement by complying with the directives of ECP. The Commission states that it is for information of general public, the legislators who have failed to file their statements of assets and liabilities shall cease to function as legislators with immediate effect. The issuance of notification will mean the non-complying lawmakers cannot function unless they fulfil the legal requirement.
The official said the Commission extended the date for filing returns which was September 30. Another 15 days are given to them prior to notifying their names. Once a lawmaker files his or her statement of assets and liabilities, the Election Commission initiates file work and his membership is restored within a day or two. Members show urgency even after October 15 only if a session of the related legislature is on or is about to commence, and this is because there is no law to impose penalty on them.
Each year, legislators are bound to carry out the exercise and within next few months after they file their related documents, the details will be published in the official gazette. A ECP official said that from next year, a booklet containing guidelines would be distributed among legislators for their information, prior to filing their statements.
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