Daily Times

The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Monday suspended the membership of a total of 271 lawmakers due to their failure to submit details of their assets and liabilities.

According to details, the ECP suspended the membership of 271 lawmakers after they failed to submit mandatory statement of their assets and liabilities that is required to be filed at the year-end. The parliamentarians suspended by the ECP include 136 members of the National Assembly, 21 from the Senate, 54 from the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Assembly, 48 from the Sindh Assembly and 12 from the Baluchistan Assembly. As per the notification, the suspended members include Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leaders Ahsan Iqbal, Khawaja Asif and Mohsin Ranjha, and Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) Convener Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui.

The election commission has forwarded the lists of the members to the respective speakers of the houses, asking them to ensure the listed members stop working. The ECP said that lawmakers cannot participate in parliamentary proceedings and their membership will remain suspended until they submit their respective statements. 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. Earlier in January, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) had given a deadline to the parliamentarins for submitting the details of their assets by January 15. The ECP released a list of parliamentarians from the Lower and Upper Houses, as well as from the provincial assemblies who failed to submit asset details. The commission stated in a notification that some lawmakers did not submit their statements of the assets despite the expiry of the December 31 deadline. It asked the lawmakers to submit the details of their assets to the ECP by January 15, otherwise, their membership will be suspended on January 16.