ISLAMABAD: The Transparency International-Pakistan (TI-P) has urged the authorities to withdraw the Elections (Amendment) Bill 2026 that envisages restriction of public access to assets disclosure of parliamentarians.
The TI-P argued that restricting public access to the asset disclosure of parliamentarians through Elections (Amendment) Bill, 2026 introduced in the National Assembly of Pakistan, will undermine political integrity and legislative transparency.
The TI Pakistan highlighted that Sections 137 and 138 of the Elections Act 2017 serve as a critical mechanism for public oversight in line with global best practices on legislative transparency. However, the proposed amendments risk weakening this mechanism that allows citizens to provide oversight into the financial integrity of public office holders.
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The TI Pakistan further highlighted that the proposed amendment is also in contravention to progress made under the IMF Governance and Corruption Diagnostic (GCD) report on Pakistan. One of the 15 core benchmark recommendations within the GCD report focuses on improving integrity of senior civil servants by publishing asset declarations. Pakistan has made significant strides on this through the passage of Civil Servants (Amendment) Bill, 2025 by Senate, which mandates civil servants in grades BPS-17 to BPS-22 to publicly declare both their domestic and foreign assets, including those of their immediate family members. By moving to restrict similar disclosures for Parliamentarians, the Election (Amendment) Bill, 2026 creates an uneven application, where the executive branch is held to a higher standard of transparency than the legislative branch.
Additionally, the organization has warned that such a move will negatively affect Pakistan’s performance on the Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI), published by Transparency International. It highlights that in all the eight sources used to calculate Pakistan’s score on CPI, accountability of the public office holders is the central theme. At the same time, the amendment is also at odds with Pakistan’s international obligations under the United Nations Convention against Corruption (UNCAC), which emphasizes public disclosure as a primary tool for preventing conflicts of interest and illicit enrichment.
The TI-P urged that the bill be withdrawn to ensure that a strong law regulating asset disclosures of Parliamentarians is in place in line with global best practices.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2026