ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has given the final deadline of January 15 to the legislators to submit their statements of assets and liabilities for Financial Year 2019-20, and Shehbaz Sharif and his son Hamza Shehbaz will not be given an extension in deadline just because they are in jail, the ECP official told this correspondent.
The lawmakers are not required to visit the ECP in person to submit their wealth statements and they can do so through their consuls or other authorised representatives, the official said.
“Even if a lawmaker is jailed, he/she is allowed to meet their family members/consuls/ party leaders usually on weekly basis. The inmates can easily have their wealth statements prepared by their family members/consuls/party leaders and get them submitted to the ECP. And we have been sending reminders to the lawmakers to submit their wealth statements for the last few months. There is no excuse not to file wealth statements within the given deadline,” the source said.
The legislators, under the law, are bound to submit their yearly statements of assets and liabilities and those of their spouses and dependent children as on each year's June 30, not later than December 31 each year, a mandatory requirement under Elections Act, 2017.
Those lawmakers who fail to submit their wealth statements by the given deadline are given 15 days to submit wealth statements failing which their legislative memberships are suspended.
Sections 137 (2) and (3) of Elections Act, 2017 read: “The Commission, on the first day of January each year through a press release, shall publish the names of members who failed to submit the requisite statement of assets and liabilities within the period specified under sub-section (1).
(3) The Commission shall, on the sixteenth day of January, by an order suspend the membership of a member of the Assembly and Senate who fails to submit the statement of assets and liabilities by the 15th day of January and such member shall cease to function till he submits the statement of assets and liabilities.”
On Friday, the ECP issued a list of 394 out of 1,195 lawmakers including members of Parliament and provincial assemblies who did not submit their wealth statements. The list revealed at least nine members of Prime Minister Imran Khan’s federal cabinet, Chief Minister Punjab Usman Buzdar and CM Sindh Murad Ali Shah were among 394 lawmakers who had not submitted their wealth statements to ECP.
Seven federal ministers including Planning Minister Asad Umer, Industries Minister Hammad Azhar, Science and Technology Minister Fawad Chaudhry, Education Shafqat Mehmood, Religious Affairs Minister Noor-ul-Haq Qadri, Inter-Provincial Coordination Minister Dr Fehmida Mirza, Maritime Affairs Minister Ali Zaidi Ali, and State Minister for Climate Change Zartaj Gul and PM’s Special Assistant on Capital Development Authority (CDA) Affairs Alif Nawaz Awan were yet to submit their wealth statements to ECP.
Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, who is not a Member of Punjab Assembly as he has not taken oath despite winning the election on Punjab Assembly seat PP-10 Rawalpindi-V, was shown in ECP list as a Member Provincial Assembly (MPA) who had not yet submitted his wealth statement. Ishaq Dar has also not taken oath as a senator but he has submitted his wealth statement, according to ECP record.
Excluding Nisar and Dar’s seats, 11 legislative seats are currently vacant including three National Assembly seats, three Sindh Assembly seats, two Punjab Assembly seats and one seat each of Senate, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly and Balochistan Assembly.
However, ECP record wrongly mentions that there are currently 10 legislative seats lying vacant and it does not does not show National Assembly’s seat NA-221 Tharparkar-I as a vacant seat despite that this seat has been lying vacant due to the death of Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) MNA Noor Muhammad Shah Jillani last month.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2021