ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Wednesday restored the membership of another 36 lawmakers after the belated submission of statements of assets and liabilities for the financial year ending on June 30, 2022.

They include eight senators, 25 members of the National Assembly (MNAs) and three members of the now dissolved Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Assembly.

The eight senators, whose membership has been restored, include former finance minister Shaukat Fayyaz Tarin, PPP leader Taj Haider and JUI-F’s Maulana Abdul Ghafoor Haidri. The other five senators are Dr Zarqa Suharwardy Taimur and Dost Mohammad Khan (PTI), recently elected senator Syed Waqar Mehdi and Jam Mahtab Hussain Dahar (PPP) and Hidayatullah Khan (ANP).

The 25 MNAs to have been restored include Minister for Planning, Development and Special Initiatives Ahsan IqbalChaudhry, Minister for Commerce and PPP leader Syed Naveed Qamar, Minister for Defence Production Mohammad Israr Tareen, Minister for National Food Security Chaudhry Tariq Bashir Cheema, Minister for Privatisation Abid Hussain Bhayo, Minister of State for Interior Abdul Rehman Khan Kanju and brother-in-law of former president Asif Ali Zardari, Mir Munawar Ali Talpur, Special Assistant to the Prime Minister (SAPM) Mahar Irshad Ahmad Khan, parliamentary secretary (Ministry of Inter-Provincial Coordination) Nauman Islam Shaikh, Parliamentary Secretary on Human Rights Ayesha Rajab Ali and PTI’s Ahmad Hussain Dahar.

Others on the list are Saleem Rehman, Saleh Mohammad, Dr Nisar Ahmad Cheema, Zulfiqar Ahmad, Azhar Qayyum Nahra, Mohsin Shahnawaz Ranjha, Mohammad Shahbaz Babar, Makhdoom Syed Samiul Hassan Gillani, Syed Ghulam Mustafa Shah, Shakila Khalid Chaudhry, Samina Matloob, Asiya Azeem, Dr Seemin Abdul Rehman Bokhari and Kesoo Mal Kheeal Das.

Fazal Hakeem Khan Yousafzai, Fazal Maula and Mufti Ubaidur Rahman are the three members of the now dissolved KP Assembly whose membership had been restored.

According to an ECP official, the legislators who were suspended over non-submission of their asset details had filed their statements of assets and liabilities and fulfilled the legal requirement in conformity with relevant election laws.

The Elections Act, 2017 provides that every member of an assembly and Senate would submit the details to the ECP on or before Dec 31 each year, a copy of his statement of assets and liabilities, including assets and liabilities of his spouse and dependent children, by Dec 31.

The election rules also provide that the commission on Jan 16, by an order, suspend the membership of a member of an assembly and Senate who fails to submit the statement of assets and liabilities by Jan 15 and such a member will cease to function till he or she files the statement of assets and liabilities.

It is pertinent to mention here that the ECP had suspended the membership of 271 lawmakers for non-submission of their statements of assets and liabilities on Jan 16 as per law.

The ECP had restored membership of 24 of them on Tuesday - a day after suspending their membership.

Chairman Senate Mohammad Sadiq Sanjrani had on Tuesday expelled some members of the House from the hall, directing them to come back only after submitting their statements of assets and liabilities to the ECP.

Published in Dawn, January 19th, 2023