ECP suspends membership of 318 MPs for not disclosing assets details

ISLAMABAD (92 News) – The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has suspended the membership of 318 members of parliament and provincial assembly for not disclosing their assets. The suspended MPs include 12 senators and 70 MNAs. The suspended members include Federal Law Minister Farogh Naseem, Minister for Science and Technology Fawad Ch, former prime minister Raja Pervez Ashraf, Zartaj Gul, Shehla Raza, Saeed Ghani and Ch Nisar. A day earlier, the ECP ordered the lawmakers to submit their assets’ details till midnight at 12am. According to the ECP spokesperson, the parliamentarians and members of the provincial assemblies asked to submit the details of their assets by midnight tonight. He said that the offices of supreme electoral body of the country will remain open till 12am to facilitate the lawmakers. He said that the date for submitting assets’ details will not be further extended. The spokesperson warned that the membership of the lawmakers will be suspended who will fail to submit details of their assets till the deadline. In the previous year, the ECP released assets details of provincial lawmakers belonging to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) and Balochistan assemblies. KP’s Mahmood Khan turned out to be richest chief minister of the country who is possessing more than Rs2.37 billion worth assets over having ownership of various apartments, houses and plots that worth around Rs2.33 billion. The ECP’s declaration further disclosed that CM Khan also owned 35 tola gold. Moreover, the opposition leader Akram Durrani is was owner of more than 10 million worth assets, KP Assembly Speaker Rs200 million, Deputy Speaker Mehmood Jan Rs114.4 million, Atif Khan Rs19.1 million, Shahram Khan Tarakai Rs5.2 million, Shaukat Yousafzai Rs4.4 million, Taimur Saleem Khan Jhagra Rs110 million, Pervez Khattak’s brother Liaquat Khattak Rs326.7 million, Qalandar Lodhi Rs14.4 million, Syed Ishtiaq Rs23.7 million, Bahadur Khan Rs880 million, Fakhar Jahan Rs776.2 million and Nighat Orakzai more than Rs10 million, In Balochistan, Chief Minister Jam Kamal is possessing assets worth above Rs220 million, whereas, his wife is having assets worth more than Rs38.3 million. Balochistan Assembly Speaker Abdul Quddus Bizenjo owned assets worth more than Rs2 million and Nawab Aslam Raisani possessed Rs210.5 million worth assets. Earlier in the day, the ECP has also released details of the assets of the members of the Sindh Assembly. Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah owns two vehicles worth Rs14.2 million, Rs160 million bank balance, while his spouse owns over one kilogram gold jewellery. Opposition Leader in Sindh Assembly, PTI’s Firdaus Shamim Naqvi owns Rs168.4 million value assets, according to the details released by the election commission. PPP leader and sister of former president Asif Ali Zardari, Faryal Talpur have assets over Rs380 million. She didn’t mention any assets in the overseas.