ISLAMABAD: The electoral body, till Wednesday, restored the memberships of 110 lawmakers, whereas 49 legislators remained suspended over their failure to submit the wealth statements of the previous financial year 2024-25.
The reinstated legislators comprised 36 Punjab Assembly, 29 National Assembly, 17 Sindh Assembly, 15 Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly, seven Senate and six Balochistan Assembly legislators, who submitted the wealth statements of the previous financial year to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), it was revealed through respective ECP notifications.
Former CM Sindh Qaim Ali Shah and former CM Balochistan Akhtar Mengal remained suspended till the filing of this report Wednesday night. Shah is presently a Member Provincial Assembly (MPA) from Khairpur, Sindh, and Mengal is a Member National Assembly (MNA) from Khuzdar, Balochistan.
The list of suspended lawmakers also included Sindh’s Excise and Taxation Minister Mukesh Kumar Chawla, and Ali Musa Gilani MNA from Multan, the son of Chairman Senate Yousaf Raza Gilani.
The Senate chief’s other son Abdul Qadir Gilani, also an MNA from Multan, had his membership restored after filing the wealth statements, revealed the related notification.
On 16 January, the ECP suspended the legislative memberships of 159 lawmakers comprising 32 NA, 50 PA, 33 SA, 28 KPA, seven BA and nine Senate members.
The suspension of legislative memberships implies that the said lawmakers cannot attend the sessions of their respective legislatures, and cannot continue to perform functions in their respective official capacities, till the required wealth statements are filed with the ECP, and their legislative memberships are restored by the electoral entity.
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