Ensuring transparency

In a move that should help promote transparency, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) will make available the nomination papers of all candidates online. In addition, government bodies like the FBR, NAB and NADRA have agreed to provide the ECP with information on the candidates, including tax details. Ideally, this information, too, should be made public, especially after recent revelations showed that a large majority of parliamentarians do not file their tax returns. Because of issues of privacy, the FBR and the ECP cannot publicise this information themselves, but it should become the norm for all candidates running for elected office to release tax information themselves. This is information that every voter deserves to know. Not paying taxes is a criminal offence and so every voter should be privy to this information.

Of course, simply putting nomination papers online will not be enough. We have no way of knowing whether the nomination papers filed by candidates are based on facts or not. It is very likely that many candidates will simply lie about their assets and taxes. To deal with this eventuality, the ECP should not hesitate to disqualify candidates whose nomination papers have inaccurate information. The ECP should also remember that much of the country does not have internet access and so should provide hard copies of nomination papers to interested voters for a nominal fee. Indeed, in many constituencies, it is very possible that almost no voter has access to the internet.



Hopefully, knowing that their nomination papers are freely available will deter many candidates from lying. But for many, tax avoidance has become a way of life and such candidates will probably try to come up with creative ways to explain why they haven’t filed taxes. The ECP should try to forestall this by thoroughly investigating the assets and expenditures of all candidates. This should include information on things like property owned and foreign vacations taken. The ECP also should not be afraid of being proactive in disqualifying candidates. Political parties will certainly cry victimisation but the ECP should not compromise its independence just to appease them. For too long we have tolerated corrupt representatives. There is no reason for us to continue going along with that.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 22^nd, 2013.