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— File Photo

ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan released on Wednesday details of assets of political parties for the financial year 2010-11, showing the ruling PPP among the poorest parties of the country.

The party, registered under the name of PPP-Parliamentarians, had only Rs435,397 in its account on June 30, 2010, with no immoveable property anywhere in the country.

The statement of accounts of the PPP-P, submitted by its secretary general and now Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf, shows that of the Rs435,745, the party spent only Rs348 during the entire financial year.

The political parties have not submitted their statements of accounts under the set procedure, making it difficult for the ECP to ascertain the actual value of assets. It also exposed the inability of the commission to verify their account details.

The statements of accounts for 2010-11 submitted under the Political Parties Order 2002 show that the Pakistan Muslim League-Q had assets worth Rs51.91 million, which included a house worth Rs23 million on Margallah Road in Islamabad. The PML-Q spent Rs11.9 million under various heads.

Interestingly, the PML-N has also mentioned the Margallah Road property in its details of assets worth Rs33.5 million.

However, it calculated the value of the disputed property at Rs27.1 million.

The PML-Q, which is presently in possession of the house, had set up its office before the 2002 elections and after the Sharif brothers left the country under a deal with then military ruler Gen Pervez Musharraf in Dec 2000.

Besides this, the PML-N also mentioned its party office on Karasaz Road in Karachi as its property worth Rs50 million. It has shown Rs6.3 million in its bank accounts in Islamabad and only Rs558 in Sindh.

According to the statement of accounts, which bears the signatures of PML-N chairman Raja Zafarul Haq, the party surprisingly has no property in its stronghold Lahore or anywhere in Punjab.

Under the Political Parties Order 2002, every political party is required to submit a consolidated statement of its accounts after getting it audited by a chartered accountant within 60 days of the closing of a financial year.

The PML-N had Rs1.3 million as opening balance in the party’s Punjab chapter account at the start of the financial year 2009-10 and it received Rs4.4 million during 2010-11 as donations.

The party had a closing balance of Rs3.9 million on June 30, 2010, and Rs3.63 million on June 30, 2011. The PML-N’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa chapter has Rs3.2 million in its accounts.

According to the ECP, the Awami National Party had a fixed asset of Rs27.22 million in 2009 and it remained unchanged in 2010.

Jamaat-i-Islami has shown a bank balance of Rs5.4 million.

The Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaaf claimed in its statement that it had immoveable assets worth Rs4 million by the end of financial year 2010-11. It had Rs32.62 million in its bank account and almost all this amount had been contributed by the party chief, Imran Khan, himself.

The JUI-F has shown assets worth Rs2 million and the Awami Muslim League only Rs57,000.

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