ISLAMABAD: The Parliamentary Committee on Electoral Reforms (PCER) has approved the draft of Elections Bill 2017, which proposes up to Rs 100,000 fine or three-year imprisonment for lawmakers if irregularities are found in the details of their assets.
The proposed law also suggests that the membership of lawmakers should also be terminated if they failed to submit the details.
According to the draft bill, the process of submission of assets’ details will also be changed. The lawmakers will be asked to submit the details of their assets by June 30 every year, the draft read.
The bill also proposes additional powers for the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), enabling it to summon the services of any institution in order to investigate any irregularity in the asset details submitted by lawmakers.
The lawmakers who fail to submit the details within 60 days will lose their assembly membership, the bill proposed.
Explaining the process of membership termination, the bill read that the ECP would first serve a show-cause notice to the lawmaker and if the membership was terminated subsequently, the said lawmaker would have 30 days to file an appeal in the Supreme Court.
All details regarding the assets of parliamentarians will be published on the ECP’s website, it also said.
Last month, the ECP had warned that time was running out for the enactment of electoral reforms if political parties wanted the next general elections to be held under the proposed laws.
Expressing concern over the delay in the promulgation of the election laws 2017, the ECP had written to the National Assembly speaker — through the NA secretary — asking him to direct the Parliamentary Committee on Electoral Reforms “to finalise its recommendations and lay the bill before the parliament for making necessary legislation and enact the Election Act 2017 as early as possible so the ECP could start and complete its work in time according to the new law”.
The ECP’s letter, however, maintains that under Section 14 of the draft election law, the ECP was required to “prepare a comprehensive action plan specifying all legal and administrative measures that have been taken or are required to be taken” at least six months before the general elections are due to be held.
The draft law was presented by Finance Minister Ishaq Dar — who heads the parliamentary committee — in an interim report on December 20 last year before both houses of parliament.
While presenting the report, the minister had said that the committee had decided to seek feedback from all stakeholders, including parliamentarians, adding that a final draft would be completed within 30 days once all recommendations had been incorporated.
Published in Daily Times, July 28th , 2017.
