ECP suspends membership of 318 lawmakers

F.P. Report

ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan suspended membership of 318 lawmakers on Thursday for not meeting the deadline to submit their assets details.

Lawmakers whose membership was suspended include Pir Sabir Shah, Fawad Chaudhry, Farogh Naseem, Farrukh Habib, Birjees Tahir, Zartaj Gul, Amir Liaquat, Raja Pervaiz Ashraf, Noorul Haq Qadri, Amir Kayani, Muhammad Ayub, Hasil Bizenjo, Taj Afridi and others.

A total of 70 MNAs, 12 senators, 115 Punjab MPAs, 60 MPAs from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 40 Sindh MPAs and 21 from Balochistan were suspended by the ECP.

On January 2, the commission released a list of nearly 600 members of the parliament and four provincial assemblies for their failure to submit the details of their assets and liabilities and those of other members of the family.

Under the law, all legislators are required every year by December 31 to file the related documents to the electoral body, which has the mandate to carry out scrutiny of the same, if it deems fit and finds discrepancies. On non-compliance, the ECP bars lawmakers from performing their duties as legislators and their membership can be restored on compliance with the legal requirements.

The members of the federal cabinet, who have not been able so far to comply with this requirement, can be barred from performing their official duties. The Election Commission, traditionally, gives two more weeks to the legislators besides the deadline after which the names of non-complying lawmakers are notified and the relevant legislatures are moved to bar them from attending sessions.