Wealth statements: Lawmakers failing to submit by midnight to be suspended

ISLAMABAD: The electoral entity said on Thursday that the legislative memberships of the parliamentarians and provincial lawmakers, who failed to submit the wealth statements of the previous financial year till midnight, would be suspended today (Friday).

In this context, the Political Finance Wing would receive the required wealth statements from parliamentarians and provincial assemblies’ members, till the given time, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) said in a statement on Thursday.On 16 January each year, the legislative memberships of those lawmakers, who do not submit the required wealth statements for the previous fiscal year to the ECP by 15 January, are suspended under Section 137(3).

“The Commission shall, on the sixteenth day of January, by an order suspend the membership of a member of an assembly and Senate who fails to submit the statement of assets and liabilities by the fifteenth day of January and such member shall cease to function till he files the statement of assets and liabilities,” this Section reads.

On 1 January, each year, the ECP publishes the names of legislators who do not share the required wealth statements, under Section 137(2) of the Elections Act, 2017.

The related list issued by the ECP this 1 January revealed that nearly a dozen members of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s federal cabinet, including six federal ministers, were among the 446 legislators in the six legislative houses who did not submit their wealth statements of the last financial year with the electoral body, failing to fulfil a key legal requirement.

The members of the Parliament and provincial assemblies were required to submit to the ECP, by 31 December 2025, the statements of assets and liabilities, including those of their spouses and dependent children, for the fiscal year 2024-25, a mandatory requirement under Section 137(1) of the Elections Act, 2017.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2026