Scrutiny process: Luck, lucre and lawmakers

Mysterious prizes and unexplained gains as aspirants reveal financial history.

ISLAMABAD:

Former deputy prime minister Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi seems to be the luckiest legislator of 2012.

He won a ‘prize’ worth Rs12.634 million which augmented the hefty salary he drew from the public exchequer as the deputy prime minister.

Nomination papers uploaded by the Election Commission of Pakistan on its website reveal some rather interesting details regarding the financial history of former lawmakers during the past three years.

According to his nomination form, Elahi drew a salary of approximately Rs7.7 million during 2010 and 2011 – but failed to mention his earnings in 2012.

However, his papers say that he won an ‘undefined prize’ worth Rs12.634 million last year.

He paid taxes worth Rs1.263 million during 2012 from his prize money, Rs 791,938 during 2011 and Rs 535,131 during 2010.



Elahi also paid agriculture tax worth Rs289,725 from his 60 acres of land during the last three years. Once again, his form fails to mention his industrial income.

He declared in his form that neither he nor his spouse, or any dependents, own any industries.

Former foreign minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi paid over Rs17 million as tax during the past three years from his sources of income, which included his salary, property and agricultural income.

Qureshi mentioned that he holds 2,886 kanals of land and paid agricultural taxes worth Rs 89,050 in three years – 2012 and 2010 – from an annual agriculture earning of around Rs5 million.



Another former foreign minister Hina Rabbani Khar said that she owns 1,812 kanals of farmland and paid total agriculture tax worth over and above Rs7,000 annually during 2010, 2011 and 2012, from an agriculture income of Rs150,000 in 2010 and Rs1,000,000 in 2011 and 2012.

According to her nomination form, her last total annual income amounts to Rs3,142,017 and she paid Rs145,142 as tax.

Khar, the owner of Lahore’s Polo Lounge restaurant, owns capital amounting to Rs1,127,979. Her total assets are worth Rs48.373 million.

According to PkMAP chief Mehmood Achakzai’s nomination forms, he has only Rs500,000 in the bank and his domestic expenses amount to Rs300,000. PPP leader and former federal minister Nazar Mohammad Gondal’s net assets increased from Rs2,981,722 in June in the previous financial year to Rs7,812,059 in the current financial year. Gondal did not justify the sudden rise in the value of his net assets, which amounts to Rs4,830,337 within one year.



He paid taxes worth Rs120,876 from his annual salary in 2010, Rs79,050 in 2011 and Rs93,779 in 2012. The leading lady of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement, Khusbakhat Shujaat, paid Rs699,090 as income tax during 2012, Rs500,218 during 2011 and Rs399,410 during 2010.

Her nomination forms stated that her net assets stood at Rs8,493,820 during the current financial year as compared to Rs16,374,158 during 2011.

She owns an apartment in Clifton worth Rs400,000 and plots worth Rs576,000 in Bahria Town Islamabad. She also owns the Kid’s University with a capital of Rs12.456 million.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 2^nd, 2013.