ECP starts auditing of three major political parties

ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has started auditing accounts of three major political parties — Pakistan Tehrik-e-insaf (PTI), Pakistan Muslim League-nawaz (PML-N) and Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP).

On the complaints of political parties against each other on charges of illegal funding, the ECP’S Political Finance Wing (PFW) has been activated with the appointment of Zameer Ahmed as its director general, who belongs to the Audit and Accounts Service. The PFW will also scrutinise assets of parliamentary leaders and members of the Parliament (MPS), and information would be obtained from the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR), the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) and the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA).

According to Article 17(3) of the Constitution, “Every political party shall account for the source of its funds in accordance with law.” Similarly, Article 4 of The Political Parties Rules (2002) says: “Every political party shall maintain its accounts in the manner set-out in Form-i indicating its income and expenditure, sources of funds, assets and liabilities and shall, within sixty days from the close of each financial year (July-june), submit to the Election Commission a consolidated statement of accounts of the party audited by a Chartered Accountant, accompanied by a certificate, duly signed by the Party Leader to the effect that no funds from any source prohibited under the Order were received by the party and that the statement contains an accurate financial position of the party.”

The financial affairs of political parties are a neglected affair in the ongoing accountability process. Most political parties fail to submit their annual income tax return with details of their expenses, donations and donors though it is binding upon them under the Income Tax Ordinance 2001. Failure on part of the FBR in not enforcing this law exposes the state of governance.

The MPS are also required to file their assets details with the ECP, and their income/wealth statements with the FBR. The ECP can seek help from NAB, FIA, FBR and other agencies to probe any suspected increase in assets or wealth of a person as the commission it lacks capacity to do this investigative job.