The Election Commission of Pakistan is set to ask over 300 electricity and phone bills defaulter legislators to have their outstanding bills cleared latest by this month-end in to become eligible for contesting the general polls.

The electoral body on Wednesday received a Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) list containing names of nearly 300 recently retired lawmakers, including Members National Assembly (MNAs) and senators.They include bigwigs like former Leader of Opposition in NA Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan; deputy PM Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi; NA speaker Fehmida Mirza;

coalition government partner ANP’s chief Asfand Yar Wali; MQM’s Farooq Sattar; JUI-F chief Fazlur Rehman; outgoing ministers Rehman Malik, Hina Rabbani Khar, Qamar Zaman Kaira, Hafeez Shaikh, Farooq H Naek, Manzoor Wattoo, Makhdoom Amin Faheem, Firdous Ashiq Awan; and Jamshed Dasti, Faisal Kareem Kundi and Nadeem Afzal Chan.

Earlier this week, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) had got a list of about two dozen former lawmakers who had not paid their electricity bills. The IESCO (Islamabad Electric Supply Corporation) list also contained names of Rehman Malik, Hina Rabbani Khar, Manzoor Wattoo, Farooq H Naek and Latif Khosa. Rehman Malik is liable to pay 4.7 million rupees to the power distribution company.

“This is very unfortunate,” said Chief Election Commissioner Justice (r) Fakhruddin G Ebrahim during a conversation with this correspondent. “I really wonder if they deserve to be part of the parliament with this kind of conduct,” he said about the phone and electricity bill defaulter politicians.

The CEC said the defaulters would be asked to pay the bills at the earliest. “We would not let it go. They would be asked in clear terms to pay their outstanding bills at the earliest. Otherwise, there would be consequences. We’ll make sure that the candidate who doesn’t clear its arrears doesn’t contest elections. It’s as simple as that.”

Asked on the methodology to be adopted to prevent the defaulter candidates from contesting elections, the CEC said, “We’ll map it out, but that’s not a problem. We have a lot of options including rejecting the nomination papers of the defaulter candidates.”

Requesting anonymity, a senior ECP official said that several politicians have been verbally communicated to pay their outstanding utility bills by March 31. Official correspondence would follow in the coming days, he informed. The decision, according to the official, is taken to reject the nomination papers of the bill defaulters by April 5, the last date for the scrutiny of general polls contestants’ nomination papers.

Among the 284 phone bill defaulter ex-lawmakers, Nisar Ali Khan is liable to pay 80,000 rupees, Rehman Malik owes the phone company Rs200,000, Pervaiz Elahi: Rs26,000, Manzoor Wattoo: Rs271,000, Hafeez Sheikh: Rs 93,000, Faisal Kundi: Rs100,000, Kaira: Rs 97,000, Hina Khar: Rs38,000, Amin Faheem: Rs37,000, Fazlur Rehman: Rs53,000, Nadeem Chan: Rs31,000, Farooq Sattar: Rs 200,000 and Jamshed Dasti: Rs13,000.

The payable bills cover the period till last month. The ECP in coordination with the Federal Board of Revenue, National Accountability Bureau and State Bank of Pakistan has formulated a mechanism to net bank, tax and utility bills defaulter politicians to stop them from contesting general elections.