ECP suspends membership of 271 lawmakers

Lawmakers barred from participating in parliamentary proceedings

ISLAMABAD:

The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Monday suspended the membership of as many as 271 lawmakers over their failure to submit details of their assets and liabilities.

According to details, the election watchdog suspended the membership lawmakers after they failed to submit the mandatory statements required to be filed at the end of year.

The parliamentarians suspended by the ECP include 136 members of the National Assembly, 21 from the Senate, 54 from the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) Assembly, 48 from the Sindh Assembly and 12 from the Baluchistan Assembly.

As per the notification, the suspended members include Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leaders Ahsan Iqbal, Khawaja Asif and Mohsin Ranjha, and Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) Convener Khalid Maqbool Siddiqu

The ECP said that lawmakers cannot participate in parliamentary proceedings and their membership will remain suspended until they submit their respective statements.

The ECP seeks asset details under Section 42A of the Representation of the People’s Act, 1976, and Section 25A of the Senate (Elections) Act, 1975.

Earlier in January, the election watchdog had given a deadline to the parliamentarins for submitting the details of their assets by January 15.

The ECP released a list of parliamentarians from the lower and upper houses, as well as from the provincial assemblies who failed to submit asset details.

The commission stated in a notification that some lawmakers did not submit their statements of the assets despite the expiry of the December 31 deadline. It asked the lawmakers to submit the details of their assets to the ECP by January 15, otherwise, their membership will be suspended on January 16.