Not declaring assets: ECP suspends membership of 271 parliamentarians

The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Monday suspended the membership of some 271 members of parliament for failing to submit details of assets and liabilities owned by them and their families.

The ECP suspended the membership of 136 National Assembly (NA) members including federal ministers Tariq Bashir Cheema, Defense Minister Khawaja Asif and Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal.

Other politicians whose membership has been suspended include Ali Musa Gilani, Naveed Qamar, Fahmida Mirza and Abdul Hakeem Baloch.

The suspended parliamentarians also include 21 Senators, 54 from the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Assembly, 48 from the Sindh Assembly and 12 from the Balochistan Assembly.

It is pertinent to note that the ECP seeks details of assets held by all parliamentarians under Section 42-A of the Representation of the People’s Act, 1976, and Section 25A of the Senate (Elections) Act, 1975.

According to the law, parliamentarians are supposed to submit details of their assets by December 31 every year.

After the expiry of that deadline, the ECP gave lawmakers two weeks grace period until January 15 to submit details of their assets or face suspension.

Of the 1,190 lawmakers, 271 failed to submit details of their assets in time and were thus suspended.