The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has requested that lawmakers from all six legislative houses submit their annual financial statements for the 2025-26 fiscal year by December 31, 2026. This request follows the mandatory requirements set out in Section 137 of the Elections Act, 2017.
The ECP drew the attention of members from the two houses of Parliament and the four provincial assemblies to provide yearly statements of assets and liabilities. These statements must include the assets and liabilities of the lawmakers' spouses and dependent children as of the preceding thirtieth day of June.
In May this year, the ECP fixed a case against nine former lawmakers linked to Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), despite already disqualifying them from their respective legislative memberships in consequence of court convictions in 9 May cases, over their failure to submit their wealth statements for the previous financial year, even though the submission of wealth statements is mandatory for sitting legislators.
Reportedly, the nine ex-legislators were summoned for the case hearing, keeping in view that the wealth statements were required from them for the fiscal year 2024-25— the period when they were the lawmakers—before disqualification. Later, the former lawmakers submitted the required financial statements to the ECP following which the cases against them ended, it is learnt.
Under Section 137(2) of the Elections Act, 2017, the ECP publishes the names of legislators who fail to share the required wealth statements every January 1. Furthermore, Section 137(3) dictates that the legislative memberships of those who do not submit the statements by January 15 are suspended on January 16 each year.
