ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), which initiated an audit of annual asset statements submitted by lawmakers last month, found inconsistencies in statements of all 10 National Assembly lawmakers.
ECP officials told reporters on Thursday that they issued notices to all MNAs, pointing out anomalies and asking them to respond within two weeks.
The audit started from NA-1 Peshawar from where ANP’s Haji Ghulam Ahmed Bilor was elected MNA. Other MNAs include Hamidul Haq, Gulzar Khan, Imran Khattak, Siraj Muhammad Khan, Gohar Shah, Aftab Ahmed Sherpao, Amir Haider Hoti and Ali Muhammad Khan. These MNAs were elected from first 10 National Assembly constituencies.
ECP’s additional secretary Fida Muhammad Khan, who was accompanied by director security Altaf Ahmed, held a joint press briefing here.
They told reporters that after auditing National Assembly members, they would audit statements of senators and members of provincial assemblies.
This is the first time the ECP is scrutinising the statements of assets and liabilities filed by all lawmakers by September 30 every year. Earlier, the ECP just used to publish the statements without any verification.
Interestingly, glaring inconsistencies emerged when ECP official compared data submitted by lawmakers last year with statements submitted by them since general elections which were held in 2013.
“One of the most common errors in all of these statements is that they were filled callously. Lawmakers have left several things ambiguous,” Fida Khan said.
Although ECP officials did not provide specific details of anomalies, they said that these lawmakers were given opportunity to clarify their positions before the commission took any action against them.
“Many lawmakers have understated values of their assets. In some cases, they wrote the worth of a luxury bungalow in a posh locality to be just a couple of millions of rupees. These assets are actually worth billions of rupees considering their current values,” an official involved in the scrutiny process said.
Commenting on changes in the relevant law proposed by the parliamentary committee on electoral reforms, Fida Khan said the ECP would act in accordance with the prevailing laws. He said unless a specific clause was added at a later date, the proposed laws did not bar the ECP from auditing.
Published in The Express Tribune, January 6th, 2017.
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