Coincidentally the first ten documents scrutinised by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), which contained the statements of assets and liabilities that MNAs had submitted for the year 2015-2016, have turned out to be unclear. The ten MNA’s have been issued notices by the ECP to explain the vague entries or discrepancies on their statements. This is part of a new drive by the ECP to scrutinise the financial statements of all lawmakers and it would go a long way in making elected officials accountable. However, the fact that notices have been issued to all ten MNAs whose statements were selected by the ECP is cause for concern — even a sorry commentary of the cavalier attitude of elected lawmakers towards filing information regarding their wealth.
It is often lamented that the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) is either inept at holding the influential accountable or when it does so its actions are motivated by political objectives. While there is good reason to think that both are the case, the fact of the matter is that such discourse also impedes any substantive accountability of the elite. Hence, amid an atmosphere in which the body set up for accountability of public officials has lost most of its credibility, there is an urgent need to start a process that is not tainted with the same chequered record. And the drive started by the ECP exactly addresses that need.
By carrying out indiscriminate and across the board scrutiny of a document that contains the wealth statements of lawmakers, the ECP is showing the public that, at least, elected officials would not be able to get away with keeping the state misinformed about their wealth.
