ISLAMABAD: Over seven months after the expiry of the deadline stipulated in the law, eight lawmakers, including two provincial ministers of Sindh, are yet to submit their statements of assets and liabilities for the year 2015 to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP).

Sources in the ECP told Dawn that Sindh Minister for Local Government Jam Khan and Excise and Taxation Minister Mukesh Kumar Chawla were among seven members of the Sindh Assembly whose membership stands suspended for not meeting the legal requirement of submitting annual statements of assets and liabilities of their own, spouses and dependents.

The disclosure puts a question mark on the legality of actions taken by the two provincial ministers during suspension of their membership.

Other suspended members of the Sindh Assembly are Humayun Khan, Kamran Akhtar, Khalid bin Waleed, Muhammad Kamran Akhtar and Rukhsana Parveen.

Khyber Pakhtoonkhwa Assembly Member Muhammad Arif of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf has also not filed his statement of assets and liabilities.

Under the law, the ECP is required to issue a notification by October 15, suspending membership of those lawmakers who have failed to file their statements of assets by Sept 30.

Introduced in 2002 by former President Pervez Musharraf, the law is flouted by lawmakers at 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 statement of assets & liabilities of his own, his spouse and dependents annually to the commission by the 30th day of September each year.

“(2) The statements of assets and liabilities submitted under sub-section (1) shall be published in the official Gazette and copies thereof may be obtained on payment of a prescribed fee.

“(3) The commission shall, by the 15th day of October each year, notify the names of members who have failed to file statements of assets & liabilities within the period specified in sub-section (1) and by an order, direct that such a member shall cease to function till such statement is submitted.

“(4) Where a member submits the statements of assets and liabilities under sub-section (1) which is found to be false in material particulars, he may be proceeded against under Section 82 for committing the offence of corrupt practice.”

A meaningful scrutiny of the statements of assets has never taken place. There are instances of lawmakers attending proceedings of assemblies they belong to even after having been suspended by the ECP.

The ECP had suspended membership of 272 lawmakers on October 15, but no follow-up details were shared with the media. It also remained a secret as to how many lawmakers had filed their statements during the undeclared grace period between September 30 and October 15.

Published in Dawn, May 5th, 2016