Avoiding transparency

IN January this year, the National Assembly passed a private member’s bill to amend Section 138 of the Elections Act, 2017, which may blunt, if not totally reverse, the legal requirement of making public the submitted annual statements of assets and liabilities by national and provincial legislators by the Election Commission of Pakistan. The amendment would create an exception allowing the presiding officer of a legislature to ask the ECP to keep a member’s statements confidential if the presiding officer determines that publication would pose a serious threat to the member’s life or safety.…