ECP awaits assets details of 398 lawmakers

Officials urge suspension of perks for members who do not submit by Oct 16

ISLAMABAD:

By Wednesday evening, 776 lawmakers of 1,174 filed details of their assets with the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), which continues to wait for hundreds of lawmakers to submit annual statements a day after the deadline expired. September 30 was the last date for mandatory submission of declaration of assets by lawmakers.

According to the ECP, 88 senators, 270 MNAs, 197 Punjab Assembly members, 114 Sindh Assembly members, 71 Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Assembly members and 36 Balochistan Assembly members submitted their statements. ECP officials complain that the legislation bears no weight and is commonly flouted.

Prominent among those who have yet to file their declarations are K-P Chief Minister Pervez Khattak, PTI MNA Asad Umar, federal cabinet members Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, Abdul Qadir Baloch, Ghafoor Haidri, Khurrum Dastagir, sister of former president Asif Ali Zardari Faryal Talpur and the PPP’s Taj Haider.

Under Section 42A of the Representation of the People Act, 1976, every member of the Senate, National Assembly and four provincial assemblies is bound to submit details of assets of his own, spouse and dependents by September 30 every year.

The law, introduced in 2002, has several loopholes and thereby gives lawmakers ample opportunities to defy it. The legislation has also failed to bring any meaningful accountability to the process of declaration of assets.

The law allows for a 16-day ‘grace period’ for tardy declarations and after October 16 this year, the ECP can suspend the memberships of the violators. However, suspension is not defined within the law and is perceived to be a cosmetic measure only. The legislation is derided as a means to provide the media with private details of lawmakers’ wealth.

For those who do not file their declarations after the grace period, Section 3 of the law says the member shall cease to perform his functions - a vague provision that does not specify which functions the lawmaker cannot perform. Additionally, no lawmaker has ever been suspended for violating the law.

There is no clarity within the law for a member who is a minister or holds some other important portfolio who does not file their declarations. The ECP usually builds pressure on the lawmaker by providing his or her name to the media.

When many lawmakers finally submit their details months after the deadline, the ECP issues a notification for their acceptance.

Under Section 4 of the law a false statement can result in disqualification or imprisonment of the lawmaker in question. However, there is no mechanism to verify statements provided by lawmakers and no rules have been framed to implement the ECP’s decision to disqualify or imprison a member.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 2^nd, 2014.