By Staff Reporter
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s election commission on Friday suspended the memberships of 159 lawmakers across the national and provincial legislatures for failing to disclose their assets and liabilities by a mid-January deadline, a move that shows persistent challenges in enforcing financial transparency among the country’s political class.
The suspensions, which take effect immediately, affect members of the National Assembly, the Senate and the assemblies of Punjab, Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan. The lawmakers will be barred from performing their duties until they submit the required statements, the Election Commission of Pakistan said in a statement.
Among those sidelined are prominent figures like Syed Ali Musa Gilani, Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui and Muhammad Akhtar Mengal from the National Assembly; Musadik Malik from the Senate; and Saeed Ghani and Hafiz Naeeemur Rehman from the Sindh Assembly. The breakdown includes 32 from the lower house of Parliament, nine senators, 50 from Punjab, 33 from Sindh, 28 from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and seven from Balochistan.
The requirement stems from Section 137 of the Elections Act of 2017, which mandates that every legislator file an annual statement of assets and liabilities — including those of spouses and dependent children — by Dec. 31, covering the period through the preceding June 30. The commission had issued a reminder on Thursday, urging compliance by Jan. 15 and warning of consequences for delays.
This is not the first such crackdown: Last year, the body suspended 139 lawmakers for the same infraction, highlighting a recurring pattern of noncompliance in a political system often criticised for opacity.
The action came amid a flurry of other developments at the commission, which is grappling with delays in local government elections nationwide. On the same day, the body summoned Punjab’s chief secretary and local government secretary to appear in person on Jan. 22 for a hearing on missed timelines for holding polls in the province, Pakistan’s most populous.
Local governments in Punjab expired on Dec. 31, 2021, and the law requires elections within 120 days — a deadline long passed without action. The commission expressed disappointment in a letter to provincial officials, noting that assurances given last October, including a timeline provided by the chief secretary, had gone unfulfilled.
Separately, the election body issued a schedule for redrawing electoral wards in 42 cantonment boards across the four provinces, a step toward eventual local polls in those military-administered areas. The process is set to begin on Jan. 19, with final notifications due on April 20, under powers granted by the Constitution and various election laws.
But in a setback for voting in the capital, the commission withdrew its schedule for local government elections in Islamabad, citing a new federal ordinance that overhauls the system. The ordinance, promulgated on Jan. 10, replaces the Metropolitan Corporation Islamabad with three town corporations and grants broader authority to a government-appointed administrator with no fixed term.
More than 4,000 candidates had already submitted nomination papers for the 125 union councils, each paying a 2,000-rupee nonrefundable fee. The abrupt change has cast uncertainty over when, or if, the polls will proceed.
Opposition leaders seized on the withdrawal as evidence of government maneuvering. Aamir Mughal, the Islamabad region president for Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, the party of imprisoned former Prime Minister Imran Khan, called it the fourth cancellation of such elections in the capital. He accused ruling lawmakers of dodging the ballot box, pointing out that his party had fielded candidates in all three constituencies despite obstacles, with more than 25 elected unopposed — what he described as “an expression of the people’s love for ‘Prisoner 804,’” a reference to Khan’s inmate number.
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