NAB offers to aid ECP in uncovering graft

Election commission mulls including the bureau in its political finance wing.

ISLAMABAD:

While the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) is working to establish a separate wing to deal with the financial matters of politicians, the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) has volunteered to keep a check on any corrupt practices that public representatives indulge in.

The offer came during a high-level meeting between NAB Chairman Admiral (retd) Fasih Bokhari and Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Justice (retd) Fakhruddin G Ebrahim on Tuesday.

Political parties and elected members of assemblies are legally bound to submit details of their assets to the ECP every year. Similarly, the ECP in its code of conduct, among other things, has fixed an upper ceiling on expenses during election campaigns but these laws are flouted as the commission has no proper mechanism to keep a check and verify the statements of politicians.

The commission recently launched a project to establish a “political finance wing” to ensure that relevant laws are implemented. ECP sources said that it was considering getting assistance from the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) and the auditor general.

And after this meeting the commission might consider including the NAB in its proposed project.

Interestingly, the laws requiring political parties and elected representatives to declare their assets every year was incorporated into the Peoples’ Representation Act in 2001. Despite that, none of the asset records of federal lawmakers or provincial assembly members have ever been verified.

Once received, the ECP is legally bound to make public the statements of assets and liabilities of members and their dependents.

The existing law mainly requires someone to challenge a member’s asset details to initiate a process of verification. “I don’t remember anyone ever challenging the statement so far,” an official told The Express Tribune.

Similarly, political parties who contest elections also submit the statements of their assets and details of their finances and expenditures every year. But these statements are, for the better part, just a cosmetic exercise.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 29^th, 2012.