PESHAWAR: Many Members of the Provincial Assembly (MPAs) were not allowed to attend the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly session on Wednesday on account of their failure to submit the statement of assets and liabilities.
Under sub-section (1) of Section 42A of the Representation of the People’s Act, 1976 every member shall submit a statement of assets and liabilities along with that of their spouse and dependents annually to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) by September 13.
Following the rules the ECP notified the suspension of 49 MPAs of the KP Assembly on October 15 as they had not filed their assets statements. However, four of them including opposition leader Maulana Lutfur Rehman, Sardar Mohammad Idrees, Fakhre Azam Wazir and Muhammad Sheraz subsequently filed their papers.
Those who have yet to file their statements include ministers, advisors and special assistants and members from the ruling PTI-led alliance. Some MPAs from the opposition also haven’t filed their statements.
Some of the members attended the session on Wednesday as the ECP had not forwarded the notification to the KP Assembly secretariat. However, on Wednesday the formal notification was sent to the assembly following which the security staff on duty didn’t allow such members to attend the session.
Speaker Asad Qaiser at the start of the session asked the members to file their statement of assets at the earliest so that they were not barred from attending the session.
