EC to make public candidates’ assets‚ tax returns, loans

The Election Commission of Pakistan Wednesday decided to make information public regarding assets‚ tax returns and loans of the candidate in general elections.

The Commission also decided to make public other information which will help scrutinizing of nomination papers in a transparent way.

Senior officials of Federal Board of Revenue and State Bank of Pakistan also attended meeting and assured that they will provide information to the Commission about the income and tax returns of the candidates.

The decision was taken at a meeting chaired by chief election commissioner Fakruddin G. Ebrahim in Islamabad.

The Chief Election Commissioner said that cooperation of all departments is required so as to scrutinize the particulars of prospective candidates as to whether they fulfill the criteria mentioned in Article 62 and 63 of the Constitution to become true representatives of the people.

He said that the purpose of the meeting was to prepare a workable mechanism for scrutiny of nomination papers to be submitted by the contesting candidates for upcoming General Elections.

Governor, State Bank of Pakistan endorsed the view point of the CEC and assured that SBP will fully cooperate with the ECP. Likewise, Chairman FBR said that they would extend all possible assistance to the ECP for the purpose of verification of information submitted by contesting candidates pertaining to tax returns and assets and liabilities could provide the detailed list of all tax defaulters to the ECP within required time.

After thorough discussion on the issues, it was decided that a Committee will be constituted under the chairmanship of DG (E) comprising DG (IT), a representative each of SBP, FBR, NAB and NADRA to develop a workable mechanism for effective scrutiny of nomination papers of contesting candidates within a period of two weeks. Further, the Committee would suggest amendments in the nomination forms to achieve the desired objectives.

The nomination papers submitted by the candidates would be made public on ECP’s website.

The information provided by the candidates would be verified through the concerned departments.

Nomination form would be scanned and placed on ECP’s website. The FBR officers shall be placed at the disposal of ECP to probe into those entries of nomination forms which relate to tax defaults and FBR shall provide details about tax defaulters to Returning Officers concerned.

NAB will provide lists of the convicts, details of plea-bargains under NAB ordinance.

State Bank of Pakistan will provide details of bank defaulters to Returning Officers and the system to be adopted for the purpose.

A meeting will be held with the heads of relevant authorities to identify those contesting candidates who have not paid utility bills in excess of ten thousand rupees, for over six months, at the time of filing his nomination papers and thus fall in the ambit of Article 63.

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Posted by Tahir Khan on Feb 20 2013. Filed under Latest News, National, Pakistan, Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.