The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has not decided yet to place the asset and wealth declaration of Parliamentarians on its website for public information, sources said. ECP official claimed that a notification was recently issued on publishing the assets and liabilities of Parliamentarians and MPAs in the gazette of Pakistan.
The official acknowledged that details of assets and liabilities of Parliamentarians were received by the end of November but delayed making the information public. When this correspondent asked the reason for the delay the official did not respond however he added for transparency the ECP will continue with the present system where the MPs' wealth statements are notified and placed on its official website for public information.
Sources revealed that the Parliamentary Committee on Electoral Reforms made the proposal not to place details of their assets/wealth on the website to the Commission for security reasons and to protect the privacy of the Members of Parliament. Parliamentarians maintained that making their assets declaration public is a breach of their privacy while placing details of their wealth on the internet may fuel attempts to defraud or kidnap them or members of their families or engage in other unlawful acts against them.
The Commission, according to sources, argued that the wealth and asset statements of Parliamentarians, public representatives, should be made available to the public.
However the ECP lacks any mechanism to verify the assets and wealth statements of Parliamentarians and has failed to evolve a strategy that would enable and empower them to do so.
Members of the Senate, National Assembly and Provincial Assemblies of Punjab, Sindh, Khyber Puktunkhwa and Balochistan (a total of 1,174) are required to submit their asset details in the Election Commission Secretariat under Section 42A of the Representation of the People Act, 1976 and Section 25A of the Senate (Election) Act, 1975 till September 30 each year.