Islamabad, July 13; Pakistan Institute of Legislative Development and Transparency � PILDAT has demanded of the Election Commission of Pakistan to place on its website all the declarations submitted by each Senator and Member of the National Assembly and the Provincial Assemblies. The nomination papers of each Senator and Member of the National Assembly and Provincial Assemblies at the time of election should be placed at the earliest on the Election Commission website.

PILDAT has said that legislators� declarations ahead of elections are made for the information of general public but the current procedure devised by the Election Commission to obtain a copy of these declarations is so complex and time-consuming that the basic purpose of the declarations is defeated in the process. PILDAT observed that the current state of information technology provides an easy and inexpensive way to make the declarations by the political leaders public by placing them on the Election Commission website.

PILDAT also demanded that the declarations submitted by all the candidates in future by-elections and general elections should also be placed on the Election Commission website immediately after the submission of the Nomination Forms, and ahead of elections, so that general public and especially the voters become aware of the aspiring representatives� credentials before casting vote.

PILDAT observed that the declarations required to be submitted by each candidate include declaration about his/her Educational Qualification; Tax paid in the past 3 years; Loans obtained from Banks and Arrears payable to any government or public institution,etc.

PILDAT further said that had the Election Commission adopted the practice of making these declarations public on its website, it would have acted as a deterrence to the false declarations made by some of the current legislators whose degrees are found to be fake.

PILDAT also said that the declarations about the taxes payment record would allow people to know their public representatives much better.

PILDAT also demanded that the declarations of assets and liabilities which each elected representative is required to submit to the Election Commission every year should also be placed on the website in addition to the gazette notification.

PILDAT proposed Electoral Reform publications [PDF] can be downloaded here:

Position Paper (English), Position Paper (Urdu), Policy Brief