The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Wednesday moved to temporarily suspend membership of 209 lawmakers for their failure to submit details of their assets for the last year.
The commission has sent lists of the lawmakers to the speakers of respective legislatures, asking them to stop the listed members from working.
Members of all four provincial assemblies, National Assembly and the Senate have to submit details of assets of their own and their dependents by September 30 every year.
The parliamentarians suspended by the ECP include 40 MNAs and two senators. Prominent among them are Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s Dr Arif Alvi and former federal minister Ghulam Rabbani Khar.
Among the provincial assemblies, Punjab leads with 98 MPAs who have yet to disclose their assets. Punjab is followed by K-P Assembly where 32 MPAs have not disclosed their assets so far. Jamaat-e-Islami Ameer Sirajul Haq is among those who have not declared their assets.
Similarly, 28 MPAs of the Sindh Assembly, and nine of the Balochistan Assembly have not disclosed their assets during the stipulated time.
Introduced in 2002 by the then military ruler General Pervez Musharraf the law is flouted by politicians at free will.
Section 42A of the Representation of the People Act, 1976 states: “Every member shall, on a form prescribed under clause (f) of sub-section (2) of Section 12, submit a Statements of Assets & Liabilities of his own, his spouse and dependents annually to the commission by the 30th day of September each year.
Apparently, the law is rigged with flaws. Currently, it is an exercise just for media consumption where reporters can find some juicy stuff once the statements are made public. It has failed to conduct any meaningful accountability which was the spirit of the law.
Though it seems a mandatory exercise under which every lawmaker is bound to file details of her/his assets every year by a specific date, what if someone doesn’t file it?
Section 3 of the law says the lawmaker shall cease to perform his functions – a vague provision without specifying which functions he/she cannot perform. September 30 is the last date for filing statements of assets but another 15 days (October 15) has been given as grace period. Not only that, the ECP accepts the statements filed after the expiry of the last date.
It is deemed that, under the law if a member fails to submit asset details even by October 15, he should not be working as lawmaker. No one has ever been suspended so far for violating the law.
Published in The Express Tribune, October 16th, 2014.
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