Election regulations are being broken by some returning officers (ROs) who are turning down requests to release records that list the assets and liabilities of well-known politicians in the lead-up to the national election.
A number of ROs have been preventing Geo Election Cell and Geo Fact Check from obtaining the nomination papers and Form-B that lawmakers have submitted to the Election Commission of Pakistan in advance of the February 8 legislative election since last week.
A candidate’s assets and liabilities, as well as those of their spouse and dependent children, are listed on Form-B.
Requests and multiple attempts have been made by both Geo Television departments to obtain copies of Maryam Nawaz’s nomination papers for NA-119 (Lahore), Shehbaz Sharif.
Shazain Bugti for NA-253 (Dera Bugti), Asif Ali Zardari for NA-207 (Nawabshah), Fazlur Rehman for NA-44 (DI Khan), and NA-123 (Lahore).
The Election Act of 2017 stipulates in Section 138 that Form-B must be published. In addition, it gives the ECP instructions to publish each candidate’s asset and liability statement in the official gazette and make copies of the information available to “any person” upon payment of a predetermined charge.
However, the team at Geo Fact Check contacted RO Munir Hussain Chopra on January 13 in regards to Maryam Nawaz’s Form-B for NA-119 in Lahore, Punjab.
Although Chopra was sent the document multiple times, on January 17, he has not to submit the material, even though he had promised to share it with the Geo Fact Check team.
Maulana Fazlur Rehman is running for NA-44. When Geo Election Cell visited the RO’s office in DI Khan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, to request a copy of the candidate’s nomination papers, including Form B, the RO informed the reporter that he would not provide the documents because they contained “sensitive” and “personal” information about the politician.
The Geo Election Cell then made an attempt to get the nomination documents that Shahzain Bugti had submitted for NA-253 in Dera Bugti, Balochistan. However, the returning officer denied the reporter access, claiming that the document could only be given to a “voter” within the constituency.
The statute expressly provides that “any person” may receive the records, hence the RO’s assertion is in violation of that provision.
On the other hand, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari’s NA-127 (Lahore) nomination papers were obtained by Geo Election Cell.
Geo Fact Check inquired about the rejections from the Election Commission separately. Hamid Raza Khan, the organization’s deputy spokesperson, stated that the documents submitted by candidates were still being “processed” and compiled by the electoral authority and will be made available later.
It is important to reiterate that, following the nomination papers’ examination, anybody may legally access these records.
Additionally, these records were made available to the public on the Commission website before to the 2018 national election.
