In blatant violation of the election laws, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) is yet to issue notification to stop 40 lawmakers who failed to submit details of their assets and liabilities from working as members of assemblies despite the passage of the deadline.
According to Representation of People Act, the ECP is bound to stop such members from taking part in legislation who failed to submit the asset details and publish the names and details in official gazette by October 15 of those who submitted the details.
Though it was an official holiday on October 15, the ECP took no action on the next working day in this regard.
The ECP was supposed to make the said lawmakers dysfunctional by Monday, the first working day, however, nothing happened until the filing of this report.
Talking to Pakistan Today, former Election Commission secretary Kanwar Dilshad said technically, the ECP was bound to stop such members from official work who did not comply with election laws well before October 15. “And after the passage of October 15, there is no question of delaying publishing of names, if the ECP did this, it violated election laws,” he said.
He said the law had many flaws and ECP should make some necessary amendments. “Instead of committing violation of election laws, ECP should take action against those members who are not complying with laws. Currently, both ECP and 40 members are committing election laws’ violations,” he added.
Clause 42-A of Representation of People Act says, “Every member shall, on a form prescribed under clause (f)of sub-section (2)of section 12,submit a statement of assets and liabilities of his own, his spouse and dependents annually to the Commission by the thirtieth day of September each year.
(2) The statements of assets and liabilities submitted under sub-section (1) shall be published in the official Gazette and copies thereof may be obtained on payment of prescribed fee.
(3) The Commissioner shall, by the fifteenth day of October each year; notify the names of the members who fail to file statements of assets and liabilities within the period specified in sub-section (1)and by an order, direct that such member shall cease to function till such statement is submitted.
(4) Where a member submits the statement of assets and liabilities under sub-section (1) which is found to be false in material particulars, he may be proceeded against under Section 82 for committing the offence of corrupt practice.”
Though September 30 was the last date for the submission of details of assets and liabilities by MPs, over 200 did not submit the required details within the prescribed time frame.
Taking advantage of the toothless law, the members submitted their assets details by October 15, but 40 members did not do so even after the passage of October 15.
They include former interior minister Rehman Malik, Senator Faisal Raza Abidi, PTI’s newly-elected MNA Engineer Dawar Khan Kundi and others.
According to ECP record, nine MNAs, three senators, eight members of the Punjab Assembly, nine of the Sindh Assembly, 10 of KPK assembly and one member of the Balochistan Assembly are yet to comply with election laws vis-à-vis submitting details of their assets and liabilities.
The defaulting lawmakers are:
National Assembly: Nasir Khan Khattak, Engineer Dawar Khan Kundi, Muhammad Nazir Khan, Abdul Rehman Khan Kanju, Muhammad Khan, Sardar Kamal Khan Chang, Sohail Mansoor Khawaja, Shah Jahan Baloch, Moulvi Agha Muhammad and Alizeh Iqbal Haider.
Senate: Faisal Raza Abidi, Rehman Malik and Syed Mustafa Kamal.
Punjab Assembly: Najeebullah Khan, Chaudhary Muhammad Asadullah, Mian Mehmoodur Rasheed, Malik Ghulam Habib Awan, Masood Shafqat, Ali Abbas, Waheed Asghar Dogar and Abdul Majeed Khan Niazi.
Sindh Assembly: Haji Abdul Rauf Khan Khosa, Ghulam Rasool Khan Jatoi, Syed Faseeh Ahmed Shah, Muhammad Ali Bhutto, Aziz Ahmed Jatoi, Bashir Ahmed Halepoto, Jameel Ahmed Bhurgari, Saniya and Mukesh Kumar.
KP Assembly: Fazal Shakoor Khan, Mohammad Arif, Muhammad Khan Bahadur, Muhammad Zahid Durrani, Iftikhar Ali Mushwani, Ziaullah Khan Bangash, Shah Faisal Khan, Sardar Zahoor Ahmad, Abdul Sattar Khan and Javed Akbar Khan.
Balochistan Assembly: Dr Shama Iqbal Baloch.
