ECP to conduct audit of MPs’ assets from Dec

ISLAMABAD: The top election supervisory body has decided to start conducting an audit of annual statements of assets and liabilities lawmakers have filed with it from the next month.

The Election Commission of Pakistan’s move is sure to create ripples in political circles. Earlier, the commission had announced conducting audit of statements of 25% lawmakers randomly from this year.

This was decided in a meeting held on Friday that also approved what it called SOPs for the exercise. Under the approved procedure, the process will start with the classification of statements of assets. The statements will be divided in four slabs of value, starting from Rs1 million to beyond Rs1 billion value.

The type of assets will also be categorised and include agricultural property, corporate or business, real estate, industrial establishments and domestic and offshore investments and entities.

The newly set up directorate of political finance, if required, will compare statements of a member with his statements submitted during the past two years.

For the statements submitted by lawmakers for FY2015-16, the audit exercise will start from December 1. From the next year, the audit process will start from November 1 of each every year with a set timelines to finalise the job.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 19^th, 2016.