Zaidi, Fawad among 271 parliamentarians suspended by ECP

The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has suspended the membership of 271 lawmakers over failure to submit a statement of their assets and liabilities, reported 24NewsHD TV channel.

According to a notification issued by the ECP on Monday, as many as 21 members of the Senate, 136 members of the National Assembly, 48 members of the Sindh Assembly, 54 members of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly, and 12 members of the Balochistan Assembly have been suspended over failure to file their asset’s detail that is required by the top electoral body at each year’s end.

Federal Minister Planning Ahsan Iqbal, Federal Defence Minister Khawaja Asif,  Fawad Chaudhary, Murad Saeed, Zartaj Gul, Sania Nishtar, Azam Khan Swati, Taj Haider, Kamran Michael, Dost Muhammad Khan, Molana Abdul Ghafoor Haideri, Omar Ayoub Khan, Noor Alam Khan, Asad Umer, Ghulam Sarwar Khan, Aamer Mahmood Kiani, , Hammad Azhar, Shafqat Mahmood, Syed Ali Musa Gillani, Tariq Bashir Cheema, Dr Fehmida Mirza, Syed Ali Haider Zaidi, Musarat Asif Khawaja and Andleeb Abbas are prominent among the suspended members who will not be able to participate in the legislation process, including a vote of confidence.

The ECP seeks asset details under Section 42A of the Representation of the People’s Act, 1976, and Section 25A of the Senate (Elections) Act, 1975.

According to Section 137(1) of the Elections Act, 2017, lawmakers are required to submit a statement of their assets and liabilities, as well as those of their spouses and dependent children, by December 31 each year. But, the electoral body as per its tradition has given 15 more days to the lawmakers for submission of asset details and warned that “if the public representatives do not provide their statements of assets by January 16, their membership of the respective national or provincial assembly or the Senate will be suspended.” Now, suspended members of the National Assembly, Senate and provincial assemblies will not be able to attend the lawmaking forums.

The ECP will send the list of suspended members to the Speakers Assemblies and the Senate Chairman.

Almost every year, the commission suspends the membership of scores of lawmakers for not submitting the statement.