30 percent National Assembly candidates are not registered taxpayers: FAFEN

ISLAMABAD: A report from the Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) has revealed that 30 percent candidates for National Assembly are not registered as taxpayers with the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR).
“Nearly 30% or 1,714 of 5,8062 National Assembly candidates are not registered as taxpayers with board,” FAFEN said in the report released on Sunday.
FAFEN added that a Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) report revealed that 88 candidates have dual nationality.
It added that 115 candidates – 105 for general seats, eight for women-reserved seats and one for minority-reserved seat – had acquired bank loans which are either overdue or have been written off.
A total of 21,482 candidates have been nominated for election to national and provincial assemblies’ stands, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) said. Pakistan’s National and Provincial Assemblies’ elections are scheduled for July 25.
“Of those candidates in the running for general seats in the National Assembly, nearly 5 percent or 260 are women. Women filed nomination papers to contest the election in 157 (58%) out of 272 general NA seats. In the remaining 115 seats, only men are running,” the FAFEN report added.
The ECP also issued fresh district electoral rolls for four provinces and Islamabad Capital Territory, on Sunday.
The new data shows there are 105,955,409 registered voters in the country, including 46,731,146 (44%) women and 59,224,263 (56%) men.
Since the 2013 General Elections the electorate has grown by almost 19 percent. In 2013 86,189,802 voters were registered.