Lawmakers defy ECP deadline for declaration of assets

Proposed amendments to give teeth to the tax law

ISLAMABAD:

More than 450 lawmakers have withheld their asset details from the tax authorities in open defiance of the September 30 deadline.

Every year, all members of the Senate, National Assembly and the four provincial assemblies have to submit the details of the properties owned during the previous year by them, their spouses and dependent children.

Of the 1,174 lawmakers in the country, 701 have submitted their declarations. Among them are 222 MNAs, 74 senators, 193 Punjab Assembly members, 121 of Sindh, 53 of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and 38 Balochistan Assembly members.

But thanks to a loophole in the relevant laws, election authorities have failed to take action against the lawmakers who choose not to file the assets declaration within the mandatory timeframe.

This law – 42A of the Representation of the People Act, 1976, and 25A of the Senate (Elections) Act, 1975 – is often flouted by legislators since it does not provide any concrete, punitive action against those who disregard it. Rather it provides protection to the lawmakers, if they want to defy it.

What can be called a deliberately kept flaw in the legislation enacted in 2002, the country’s lawmakers are allowed a grace period of 15 days before the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) can take action against them.

Once the September 30 deadline expires, the law stipulates that the ECP suspend the membership of those who fail to disclose their assets by October 15.

This section in the law dealing with the suspension of membership is also poorly drafted. The erring members remain suspended from taking part in the proceedings of their respective houses until they file their statements. The day they submit the declaration, their memberships are restored.

The legislators are supposed to submit their bank accounts’ statements and details of their moveable and immovable assets certified by a registered accountancy firm.

The ECP, however, cannot even implement these clauses. Most of the lawmakers fill the form with random information, grossly under-valuing the assets with impunity.

The election commission also has not developed any mechanism to verify these statements. Since 2002, the authority merely publishes these statements in the form of a separate booklet for each house of the Parliament.

The amendments proposed in the law have been pending in parliament for years.

ECP officials claim they proposed certain amendments a few years ago when the Pakistan People’s Party was in power. Among the suggested changes was immediate suspension of membership of those who fail to submit their asset declarations by the deadline.

Such members should remain suspended for three to four months at least, an official of ECP’s legal wing said.

The commission, he added, had recommended a special “finance wing” comprising officials of ECP, Federal Bureau of Revenue and National Database and Registration Authority to verify the statements filed by lawmakers. “The parliament has yet to consider these proposals.”

Published in The Express Tribune, October 4^th, 2015.