LAHORE, Oct 9: The Election Commission of Pakistan takes a lenient view of the failure of 94 Punjab Assembly members to submit details of their assets with the ECP.

The last date for filing returns by parliamentarians is Sept 30 and an MP failing to meet the deadline gets the membership to his/her relevant assembly suspended immediately and the ECP notifies the same. The membership is restored only when the MP concerned submits the details of the assets on the prescribed form.

The law had been practiced during all the five parliamentary years of the previous assemblies. But, for the new assemblies the ECP seems to have changed the practice as this time instead of notifying suspension of the memberships of the MPs who failed to submit their returns in due time, the ECP has extended the deadline by 10 days (up to Oct 10) and has sent a reminder to each assembly’s secretariat, telling how many members of the house have failed to comply with the instructions.

The assembly officials were asked to inform the relevant members that they should file the returns by Oct 10.

Interestingly, the ECP communique was received at the Punjab Assembly, whose 94 members are defaulting, on Oct 9, compelling the assembly staff to approach the ‘defaulters’ by phone to convey them the ECP ‘reminder’ as the letter gives no hint of suspension of the MPAs concerned.

No ECP official was available for a comment.