ISLAMABAD: Nearly a dozen members of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s federal cabinet, including six federal ministers are among the 446 legislators in the six legislative houses who have not yet submitted their wealth statements of the last financial year with the electoral body, failing to fulfil a key legal requirement. In this context, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), in a statement on Thursday, directed the said lawmakers to submit the required statements latest by this month’s 15th, warning that their legislative memberships would be suspended, otherwise. The members of the Parliament and provincial assemblies were required to submit to the ECP, by 31 December 2025, the statements of assets and liabilities, including those of their spouses and dependent children, for the fiscal year 2024-25, a mandatory requirement under Section 137 of the Elections Act, 2017. The 446 lawmakers comprising 125 National Assembly members, 159 Punjab Assembly members, 62 Sindh Assembly members, 48 Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly members and 26 members each of Senate and Balochistan Assembly. The federal ministers; Awais Leghari, Musadik Malik, Atta Tarar, Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui, Amir Muqam and Tariq Fazal Chaudhry are among the federal cabinet members who did not submit the required wealth statements to the ECP, till the filing of this report Thursday night. The other five cabinet members having not submitted the wealth statements are: Romina Khurshid Alam, Malik Rasheed Khan, Aqeel Malik, Dr Shezra Mansab and Mubarak Zeb. Marriyum Aurangzeb and Azma Bokhari are among the members of the provincial cabinet of Punjab’s Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz who did not submit the wealth statements. The list also included Chairperson Punjab Women Protection Authority Hina Pervaiz Butt. Other noted legislators, who are part of the respective provincial cabinets, but did not submit the wealth statements to the ECP include Saeed Ghani (Sindh), Sharjeel Memon (Sindh), Shafi Ullah Jan (KP) and Abdul Rehman Khetran (Balochistan). The Section 137(1) of the Elections Act, 2017, reads, “Submission of statement of assets and liabilities - Every member of an assembly and Senate shall submit to the Commission, on or before 31 December each year, a copy of his statement of assets and liabilities including assets and liabilities of his spouse and dependent children as on the preceding thirtieth day of June on Form B.” On 1 January, each year, the ECP publishes the names of legislators who do not share the required wealth statements. Section 137(2) reads, “The Commission, on the first day of January each year through a press release, shall publish the names of members who failed to submit the requisite statement of assets and liabilities within the period specified under Sub-section (1).” On 16 January each year, the legislative memberships of those legislators who do not submit the wealth statements for the previous fiscal year to ECP by 15 January are suspended under Section 137(3). “The Commission shall, on the sixteenth day of January, by an order suspend the membership of a member of an assembly and Senate who fails to submit the statement of assets and liabilities by the fifteenth day of January and such member shall cease to function till he files the statement of assets and liabilities,” this law reads. Copyright Business Recorder, 2026