KARACHI: There are 165 members of the Sindh assembly out of which 64 lawmakers deny ownership of any vehicle, while seven others report having only motorcycles.
According to details of assets declared in the nomination papers for the 2018 general elections, 91 members of the provincial assembly possess 135 luxury vehicles worth millions whereas, seven members own nothing but motorcycles and 64 do not possess any vehicles at all.
A total of 17 members of Provincial Assembly (MPA) belonging to Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) own more than 20 cars, worth Rs7.5 million. A total of 94 out of 96 of Pakistan Peoples Party’s (PPP) MPA’s own more than 28 luxury vehicles that are valued at only Rs35 million.
Interestingly, 13 former and current provincial ministers commute without cars.
Furthermore, the nomination papers filed by the members in the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) state that former President Asif Ali Zardari’s sister, Dr Azra Pehcuho, who is now Sindh Minister for Health, does not own a single car while his other sister Faryal Talpur owns three cars which are not worth more than of Rs1 million.
Sindh’s former ministers for local government Jam Khan Shoro, Fayyaz Butt, Imdad Patafi, Gayan Chand Israni, Shahid Taheem and Ghulam Shah Jilani do not own any cars either.
The Sindh cabinet members Ismail Raho, Nasir Hussain Shah, Mukesh Kumar Chawla, Shehla Raza and Shabbir Bijrani have also denied having ownership of any car while declaring assets in the nomination papers.
While 39 of PPP’s members have no vehicles, 54 of them have more than 88 cars with an estimated value of a mere Rs35 million, bringing the value of one car down to 0.25 million if divided equally.
Moreover, the declarations of three Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) members also seems dubious with Mufti Qasim Fakhri owning a Rs 20,000 motorcycle, Younis Soomro owning a single bike as well, while Sarwat Fatima does not possess any vehicle.
Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal’s (MMA) only member of Sindh Assembly Syed Abdul Rasheed and eight Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) members have also denied holding possession of any vehicles.
MQM Parliamentary Leader Kanwar Navid Jamil owns cars worth Rs 3.5 million and MQM’s Rashid Khilji, Abdul Basit Siddiqui and Adeel Shehzad commute on motorcycles.
Only 16 of PTI’s MPA’s in Sindh own cars, all others including Haleem Adil Sheikh along with the party’s three other female members in the province are living without the use of any vehicle.
Three MPA’s of the Grand Democratic Alliance’s (GDA) including the son of former prime minister Ghulam Mufata Jatoi, Arif Mustafa Jatoi, Nand Kumar and Abdul Razzaq are also deprived of cars.
