In Pakistan, the Election Commission has suspended 212 parliament and regional assembly members for their failure to submit details of their assets and liabilities by September 30 and for again having failed to comply during the additional 15 days they were granted for this purpose.

The officials sanctioned include 40 MPs and two national senators. The other politicians concerned are members of the Punjab Assembly (98), the Sindh Assembly (29), the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly (34) and that of Balochistan (9).

It may be possible for them to recover their mandate the day they comply with the legal requirements.

Among the suspended officials we find Siraj ul Haq, chief of the Islamist conservative party Jamaat-e-Islami, and Awais Khan Leghari, Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the National Assembly.

Most of them are active members of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s parliamentary majority.