ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has restored the membership of around 58 lawmakers following late submission of their statements of assets and liabilities to the commission.

The lawmakers were suspended because they failed to submit the statements to the ECP even during an undeclared grace period of two weeks following the last date prescribed by the law (Sept 30).

Of the 272 legislators suspended, those who had their membership restored on Wednesday included 23 members of the National Assembly, seven Senators, 19 members of the Punjab assembly, four from Sindh, three from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and two from the Balochistan assembly.

Also read: ECP suspends 272 lawmakers for not filing statements of assets

From the National Assembly, the ministers who had their membership restored were federal commerce minister Khurram Dastgir Khan, Federal Minister for Religious Affairs Sardar Mohammad Yusaf and State Minister for Religious Affairs Pir Aminul Hasnat Shah.

Other MNAs on the list were Shafqat Mehmood (PTI), Sheikh Mohammad Akram (PML-N), Babar Nawaz Khan (PML-N), Junaid Akbar (PTI), Bilal Rehman, Mohammad Jamaluddin (JUI-F), Qaiser Jamal (PTI), Sahibzada Mohammad Nazir (PML-N), Rana Umer Nazir (PML-N), Chaudhry Bilal Virk (PML-N), Athar Shah Gillani (PML-N), Jamshed Dasti, Sahibzada Faizul Hassan, Mian Najibuddin Awaisi, Alam Dad Laleka, Mian Imtiaz Ahmad, Maulana Qamaruddin (JUI-F), Nighat Parveen (PML-N), Shaza Fatima Khawaja (PML-N) and Dr Shazia Sobia (PPP).

The seven Senators whose membership was restored were PML-N’s Secretary General Iqbal Zafar Jhagra, Rahila Magsi (PML-N), Ghous Mohammad Khan Niazi (PML-N), Dr Mohammad Farogh Naseem (MQM), Taj Haider (PPP), Hasil Khan Bizenjo (National Party) and Saeedul Hasan Mandokhel (PML-Q).

Nineteen members of the Punjab assembly who were reinstated were Asif Mehmood (PTI), Chaudhry Liaquat Ali Khan (PML-N), Makhdoom Ali Raza Shah (PML-N), Rana Abdul Sattar Khan (PML-N), Chaudhry Tariq Subhani (PML-N), Liaquat Ali, Ali Salman (independent), Sheikh Alauddin (PML-N), Mian Yawar Zaman (PML-N), Rana Tahir Shabbir (PML-N), Muhammad Amir Iqbal Shah (PML-N), Karam Dad Wahla (PML-N), Naeem Akhtar Bhabha, Imran Qureshi, Chaudhry Zahid Akram (PML-N), Chaudhry Ghulam Murtaza, Nighat Sheikh Chaudhry, Nausheen Hamid (PTI) and Ghazala Shaheen (PML-Z). From Sindh, the four MPAs who had their membership restored included the sons of two PPP stalwarts, Dr Fehmida Mirza and Nawab Yusuf Talpur --- Hasnain Mirza and Nawab Taimur Talpur. The other two members were MQM’s Yousuf Shahwani and PTI’s Dr Seema Zia.

In the KP assembly, Sultan Mohammad Khan (QWP), Raja Faisal Zaman (PML-N) and Bibi Fouzia (PTI), while in Balochistan, the adviser to the chief minister for finance, Mir Khalid Langove, and Dr Shama Ishaq Baloch (NP) had their membership restored.

Published in Dawn, October 22nd, 2015

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