Election Commission releases details of assets of political parties
The Election Commission of Pakistan on Thursday released the details of assets of major political parties, which shows that the ruling PML-N owns assets worth more than Rs45 million as of 2015.
In the same year, PML-N stated income of more than Rs16.5 million while their expenses exceeded Rs40m. Out of these expenses, the ruling party reportedly spent approximately Rs135,000 on political gatherings and approximately Rs145,000 on entertainment.
Bilawal Bhutto Zardari's Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) declared assets worth more than Rs4.9 million. PPP also transferred funds worth Rs100 million to PPP-Parliamentarians, the division of the party headed by former president Asif Ali Zardari. This leaves PPP-P with a total bank balance of more than Rs200 million.
Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) showed assets worth more than Rs51.6 million with a bank balance of Rs110.9 million. In 2015, Imran Khan's PTI incurred expenses of more than Rs362.4 million, out of which more than Rs6.6 million were spent on election campaigns, Rs2.5 million were spent on advertisements, and at least Rs2.8 million were spent on entertainment.
MQM had assets worth more than Rs45.7 million, while the Karachi-based party collected more than Rs230 million for their shuhada (martyrs) fund. In 2015, the party spent more than Rs250 million as expenses.
Tahir-ul-Qadri's Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT) assets were declared to be Rs1.13 million, Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) with Rs500 million, Awami National Party (ANP) with Rs22.8 million, while Jamaat-i-Islami showed assets worth more than Rs100 million.
Sheikh Rasheed's Awami Muslim League ranks as the poorest political party in the list with assets worth Rs138,000.