ECP suspends 271 legislators over assets details.

ISLAMABAD -- The membership of as many as 271 lawmakers - 136 members of the National Assembly, 21 senators and 114 members of provincial assemblies - has been suspended by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Monday for not submitting their statement of assets and liabilities.

The number is extraordinarily higher this year due to resignation by the PTI lawmakers from the National Assembly.

As opposed to 35 MNAs and three senators who had failed to submit their statement of assets to the ECP by the last year deadline of January 16, the number was significantly higher this year.

At the same time, there is no suspended MPA from Punjab according to the list issued by the ECP, as the provincial assembly has already been dissolved.

Ministers Ahsan Iqbal and Khawaja Asif, MQM-P convener Khalid Maqbool among the lawmakers who failed to file statement of assets and liabilities

These statements have to be filed by December 31 every year and the ECP had directed the lawmakers to submit their financial statements up to June, 30, 2022 by January 16, 2023, otherwise their respective memberships would be suspended.

Apart from the MNAs and senators, the membership of 48 MPAs from Sindh, 54 from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and 12 Balochistan MPAs have been suspended.

Incidentally, the number of MNAs, senators and MPAs was much higher for the year 2023 against the previous two years, and the lawmakers belonging to the ruling coalition include veteran politicians, who failed to...