ISLAMABAD: The membership of as many as 271 lawmakers — 136 members of the National Assembly, 21 senators and 114 members of provincial assemblies — has been suspended by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Monday for not submitting their statement of assets and liabilities.

The number is extraordinarily higher this year due to resignation by the PTI lawmakers from the National Assembly.

As opposed to 35 MNAs and three senators who had failed to submit their statement of assets to the ECP by the last year deadline of January 16, the number was significantly higher this year.

At the same time, there is no suspended MPA from Punjab according to the list issued by the ECP, as the provincial assembly has already been dissolved.

Ministers Ahsan Iqbal and Khawaja Asif, MQM-P convener Khalid Maqbool among the lawmakers who failed to file statement of assets and liabilities

These statements have to be filed by December 31 every year and the ECP had directed the lawmakers to submit their financial statements up to June, 30, 2022 by January 16, 2023, otherwise their respective memberships would be suspended.

Apart from the MNAs and senators, the membership of 48 MPAs from Sindh, 54 from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and 12 Balochistan MPAs have been suspended.

Incidentally, the number of MNAs, senators and MPAs was much higher for the year 2023 against the previous two years, and the lawmakers belonging to the ruling coalition include veteran politicians, who failed to fulfil their legal obligation.

The suspended MNAs include senior Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz leaders and cabinet members Ahsan Iqbal and Khawaja Asif. Also, chairman of the Public Accounts Committee Noor Alam Khan was among the members whose membership was suspended.

Other federal ministers are Sajid Turi, Mufti Abdul Shakoor, Chaudhry Tariq Bashir Cheema and Mohammad Israr Tareen.

The Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) Convener Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui is also on the list.

The 21 suspended Senators include former finance minister and PTI senator Shaukat Tarin. Others are Rana Mahmood UI Hassan, Aon Abbas, Zarqa Suharwardy Taimur, Kamran Michael, Syed Waqar Mehdi, Taj Haider, Jam Mahtab Hussain Dahar, Hidayatullah Khan, Mohsin Aziz, Rukhsana Zuberi, Saifullah Abro, Mohammad Azam Khan Swati, Sania Nishtar. Dost Muhammad Khan, Ahmed Khan, Anwarul Haq Kakar, Mohammad Abdul Qadir, Molana Abdul Ghafoor Haidari, Manzoor Ahmed and Saeed Ahmed Hashmi are other members of the upper house of parliament whose membership was suspended for their failure to submit details of the assets.

Published in Dawn, January 17th, 2023