As many as 119 out of 256 members of the recently elected 14th National Assembly (NA) are new comers to the political arena, a report by the Election Commission of Pakistan has announced.
Almost all the mainstream parties had awarded tickets to a number of new entrants to politics, but the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), which has emerged as the largest party in the National Assembly after the May 11 elections, is leading in introducing 54 new faces to the parliament, followed by 21 members from the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) and 10 members from the PPP. Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) has also introduced seven new faces to the NA. There are 13 independent candidates who have won the election for the first time without the support of any political party.
Despite the percentage of newcomers in the NA comes to over 46 per cent, the new National Assembly is still expected to be dominated by old faces.
Prominent among those who have won more than one NA constituency are Nawaz Sharif, Imran Khan, Javed Hashmi and Maulana Fazlur Rehman.
Makhdoom Amin Fahim of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) has has returned to as an MNA for the ninth time since 1970 and also has the honour to be the only member in the new assembly to have voted for the original constitution of 1973.
PML-N stalwart Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan also has the distinction of winning the eighth consecutive NA elections since 1985.
Besides them, Nawaz Sharif, Makhdoom Javed Hashmi, Syed Khurshid Shah, Syed Naveed Qamar, Nawab Yousuf Talpur, Sheikh Rashid Ahmed, Aftab Sherpao, Maulana Fazlur Rehman, Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, Ghulam Sarwar Khan, Ijazul Haq, Zahid Hamid, Ahsan Iqbal, Rai Mansab Ali and Riaz Pirzada have also been elected to the NA more than two times.
