Elections Roundup: ‘Not even in Pakistan, what to speak of London…’

–The jokes, of course, write themselves

With the announcement of the assets declared by candidates, those of Maryam Nawaz Sharif were also announced. As per her affidavit, her net assets – as recorded on June 30 for the financial year 2017 – amounted to Rs845 million.

That she of the “London toh kya, Pakistan mein bhi koi property nahi” protestation turned out to have this much-provided grist to the PTI mill online.

The day before, PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto provided a similar bit of humour when he declared Bilawal House in Karachi to be a mere Rs3 million property. You can’t get a shed in Clifton for that amount, but such are the problems of asset declaration and property pricing regimes, to begin with.

Not to imply that others have shown much candour. That Imran Khan has Rs38 million in assets is a really hard sell.

Speaking of Imran Khan, the PTI chairman moved the appellate tribunal against the rejection of his candidacy for Islamabad’s NA-53.

The technicality used by the RO to reject the said nomination papers was that he had left a question blank in his affidavit. The question: performance as an MNA. Perhaps one of Pakistan’s most expensive (salary divided by days attended) parliamentarians thought it best to not answer this question.

His lawyer Babar Awan is taken the plea to the appellate tribunal that the RO’s decision was unconstitutional.

Interestingly, Imran has another case against his candidacy, that of the whole Sita White issue. The tribunals will be hearing that and, it is assumed, Khan will be represented by Babar Awan, a man who, in the last elections, had appealed against the PTI chairman’s candidacy on the exact same grounds.