According to the ECP, those who are suspended cannot participate in parliamentary proceedings and their membership will remain suspended until they submit their respective statements.
Highlight
- Pakistan’s election body has temporarily suspended the membership of about 150 federal, provincial parliamentarians.
- Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry, Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah were suspended.
- Last year, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) suspended at least 154 members.
Pakistan’s election body on Monday temporarily suspended the membership of around 150 federal and provincial lawmakers, including Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry and Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah, over their failure to furnish details of assets and liabilities.
Last year, at least 154 members were suspended by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), but all of them later submitted tax details and their membership was reinstated.
The ECP’s move came after the elected representatives violated the mandatory filing of assets and liabilities by the end of each year. According to a notification, “Every member of the Legislative Assembly and the Senate shall furnish a copy of his statement of assets and liabilities, including the assets and liabilities of his spouse and dependent children, on or before the 31st day of December every year on the thirtieth day of June.” “.
The law provides that the ECP shall, by an order on the sixteenth day of January, suspend the membership of a member of the Assembly and Senate who fails to furnish a statement of assets and liabilities by the 15th day of January and shall be such a “member when Till he does not file the statement of assets and liabilities, he will stop working.
According to the ECP, those who are suspended cannot participate in parliamentary proceedings and their membership will remain suspended until they submit their respective statements.
The ECP said those affected by the suspension include three senators, 36 members of the National Assembly, 69 members of the Punjab Legislative Assembly, 14 members of the Sindh Assembly, 21 members of the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Assembly and seven members of the Balochistan Legislative Assembly.
Information Minister Chaudhry, Religious Affairs Minister Nurul Haq Qadri, Energy Minister Hammad Azhar, Education Minister Shafqat Mahmood, Inter-Provincial Coordination Minister Fahmida Mirza and Minister of State for Information Farooq Habib are among the members affected by the suspension.
Former Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf and Sindh Chief Minister Shah are also among the MPs who have been suspended from attending the respective assemblies.
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