ISLAMABAD: Federal Climate Change Minister Musadik Malik and Sindh’s Excise and Taxation Minister Mukesh Kumar Chawla were among 86 lawmakers whose legislative memberships remained suspended over their failure to file the wealth statements of the previous fiscal year — whereas the electoral body restored memberships of 73 lawmakers on Monday, who finally filed the required wealth statements. Through respective notifications, the ECP restored the legislative memberships of 27 Punjab Assembly, 17 National Assembly, 12 Sindh Assembly, seven Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly, five Balochistan Assembly and five Senate members. The restored lawmakers included Federal Education Minister Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui and Sindh’s Labour Minister Saeed Ghani. Former chief minister Sindh Qaim Ali Shah and ex-CM Balochistan Akhtar Mengal remained suspended as legislators, till the filing of this report Monday night. Last Friday, the ECP had suspended the legislative memberships of 159 lawmakers comprising 32 NA, 50 PA, 33 SA, 28 KPA, seven BA and nine Senate members. The suspension of legislative memberships implies that the said lawmakers cannot attend the sessions of their respective legislatures, and cannot continue to perform functions in their respective official capacities, till the required wealth statements are filed with the ECP, and their legislative memberships are restored by the electoral entity. On 16th January each year, the legislative memberships of those lawmakers, who do not submit the required wealth statements for the previous fiscal year to the 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 Section reads. On 1st January, each year, the ECP publishes the names of legislators who do not share the required wealth statements, under Section 137(2) of the Elections Act, 2017. The related list issued by the ECP this 1 January revealed that nearly a dozen members of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s federal cabinet, including six federal ministers, were among the 446 legislators in the six legislative houses who did not submit their wealth statements of the last financial year with the electoral body, failing to fulfil a key legal requirement. The members of the Parliament and provincial assemblies were required to submit to the ECP, by 31st 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(1) of the Elections Act, 2017. Copyright Business Recorder, 2026