The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has asked lawmakers and all registered political parties to submit statements of their accounts for the financial year that ended on June 30.
The ECP on Thursday issued two separate notifications: one for federal and provincial legislators to file their yearly statements of assets by September 30; the second notification is a reminder to political parties that they are bound to submit the latest details of their accounts to the ECP every year.
The ECP has drawn attention of the members of the parliament and provincial assemblies to submit yearly statements of assets and liabilities of their own, their spouses and dependents to the commission by September 30, 2016.
Section 42A of the Representation of the People Act, 1976 and Section 25A of the Senate (Elections) Act, 1975 makes it mandatory on every elected member of the assembly and Senate to submit statements of assets and liabilities.
ECP has also urged all political parties to submit the statement of their accounts for fiscal year 2015-16 with the commission before August 29. This is with accordance to Article 13 of the Political Parties Order 2002, which states that every political party has to submit a statement of accounts to ECP within 60 days from the closure of each financial year.
The statement to be submitted should carry details of annual income and expenses of the party, sources of its funds, and details of assets and liabilities.
In addition to this, ECP has also issued directives to all party chiefs to submit an undertaking declaring that their respective party does not collect funds from any unlawful means.
