Reporting snapshot · 21 January 2026. This report reflects the bill as passed by the National Assembly on 21 January 2026 and the Election Commission's earlier suspension of memberships.
What happened
The National Assembly passed the Elections Amendment Bill, 2026 on Wednesday, 21 January 2026, according to Geo News. The bill was moved by Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) lawmaker Shazia Atta Marri.
Under the proposed amendment to Section 138 of the Elections Act, the bill seeks to allow the withholding of public disclosure of lawmakers’ assets and liabilities if such disclosure is deemed to pose a serious threat to the life or safety of the member or their family.
The report said the inserted proviso states that the speaker of the concerned assembly, or the chairman of the Senate, may on an application and for reasons recorded in writing, by a ruling delivered in the chamber, determine that a member’s statement of assets and liabilities shall not be published publicly by the commission. The exemption would apply for a period not exceeding one year at a time, and a complete and true statement would still have to be submitted confidentially to the Election Commission.
The bill now requires approval from the Senate and assent from the president before it can become law.
Background
Under the existing law, members of the National Assembly, the Senate and the provincial assemblies must submit a statement of their assets and liabilities, including those of their spouses and dependent children, to the Election Commission on or before 31 December each year. Section 138 of the Elections Act also requires the Election Commission to publish the declarations in the official gazette.
The report said the development came a week after the Election Commission suspended the membership of 159 lawmakers from different legislatures for failing to submit their financial statements. According to the notification, those suspended included 32 MNAs, 50 Punjab Assembly members, 33 Sindh Assembly lawmakers, 28 Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly members, seven Balochistan Assembly members and nine senators, among them Federal Minister for Climate Change Dr Musadik Malik, PML-N’s Abid Sher Ali and Murad Saeed of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf.
What is still uncertain
The bill has not yet become law. The report did not say when the Senate would take it up or whether the president would assent. It also did not set out how the “serious threat” test would be applied in practice, whether rulings granting confidentiality would be published, or how the Election Commission would handle declarations kept out of the public gazette.
Sources & reporting notes
This article summarises published reporting and is not eyewitness reconstruction. Sources were reviewed on 21 January 2026.
- Geo News — NA passes bill seeking to keep lawmakers' assets 'confidential'21 January 2026 · Passage of the Elections Amendment Bill 2026, its mover, the proposed proviso to Section 138, the existing disclosure rules and the earlier suspension of 159 lawmakers.
