Karachi: An election watchdog on Wednesday said that half of the 4,108 candidates, who have filed their nominations for the Pakistan elections, are not paying taxes as they failed to mention their national tax number (NTN) in the papers. Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN), a foreign-funded election monitoring agency, said that 2,161, or 53 per cent, of the candidates, did not mention their NTNs.
Pakistan is desperately looking for International Monetary Fund assistance soon after an elected government is installed in the country. However, the country’s poor tax collection, the poor tax network and the untaxed agriculture sector are proving roadblocks.
A large number of legislators, who belong to the feudal class, oppose the agriculture tax.
The election watchdog observed that of all the nominations filed, only 4 per cent are women despite there being a 33 per cent quota for women in the national and provincial assemblies.
The nomination papers also revealed that around 30 per cent of the candidates did not have academic qualifications up to the bachelor’s degree level while 7.3 per cent received no formal education at all. One-fifth of the candidates did not even bother to fill in the academic qualification section.
In the 2008 general election, it was mandatory for a candidate to have a minimum bachelor’s degree or equivalent as an academic qualification. Dozens of lawmakers have been jailed or disqualified for producing fake academic degrees.
However, parliament has repelled the clause now and no academic qualification is required to be a legislator.
The highest number of candidates belong to the agriculture sector whereas 19 per cent are businessmen. Over 7 per cent are lawyers while 30 per cent have not mentioned any profession or occupation.
