A meeting of the Technical Committee on Political Finance was held under the chairmanship of Ishtiak Ahmad Khan, Secretary Election Commission of Pakistan to explore the innovative ideas and new measures to be adopted to control election expenses and to also ensure the authenticity of the assets and liabilities submitted by the Parliamentarians.
To start with, it was pointed out that the existing format of the Form being used to obtain assets declaration needs to be suitably modified keeping in view the certain points. It should contain the details of assets and its sources of acquisition whether inherited, gifted or purchased.
As far as valuation of the assets is concerned currently its value is determined subjectively without any specific formula resulting in a lot of confusion whereas under the relevant laws/rules, the following provisions exist: In case of inherited property there is no need to declare the value of the asset.
In case of property received as a gift, there is no need to declare the value of the asset; and in case of purchase of an asset, only the initial cost of purchase/acquisition needs to be given. If the value of an asset of any of the above categories has appreciated over a period of time after its acquisition that should not be a cause of concern at the time of declaration of assets as under the law no adverse inference can be drawn because any addition in value is neither taxable nor an offence. It was also observed that the Federal Board of Revenue can verify assets only if the ECP directs them to carryout this exercise.
There has been a demand from various quarters to place the statements of assets and liabilities submitted by the parliamentarians on the ECP's website. After detailed deliberations, it was felt appropriate that this should only be done when assets of all others deriving emoluments from the public exchequer/federal consolidated fund, are also placed on the website.-PR
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