After allocation of more reserved seats: PMLN emerges as single largest party in NA

ISLAMABAD: The ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PMLN) has emerged as the single largest party in the National Assembly with a tally of 123 seats, following the distribution of reserved seats of women and minorities by the Election Commission of Pakistan (PMLN).

The PMLN had won 75 NA seats in the general elections. Later, nine independents joined it, while 39 reserved seats also went its way, including 34 women and minorities. Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf-backed Sunni Ittehad Council stands at the second position with 82 seats, Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) now has 73 seats, including 54 general seats, 16 women and another three reserved seats for minorities.

This is followed by MQM-Pakistan with a tally of 22 seats, including 17 general seats and five reserved seats -- four women and one minority seat. Likewise, JUIF has eleven seats. Of these six were won directly in the elections while four women and one minority seat also were allocated to it.

The PMLQ has a total of five seats, including three general, one independent joined it while one seat reserved for women also was allocated to it. Istehkam-e-Pakistan Party has four seats in the National Assembly, including three general and one reserved for women. Similarly, six political parties have one general seat, including BAP, MWM, PML-Zia, BNP, PkMAP and the National Party.

Meanwhile, the ECP has also started distributing/ allocating the reserved seats not given to the SIC among other parties in the provincial legislatures. It has issued a notification allocating one minority seat in the Sindh Assembly and two more reserved seats for women, after which reserved seats have been allotted to the PPP and MQM.

Accordingly, reserved seats for women have been given to PPP’s Samita Afzal and MQM’s Fauzia Hameed, whereas PPP’s Surendra Vilasai has been allotted a minority seat. After this development, the number of PPP seats in the Sindh Assembly has increased to 116 and MQM’s number of seats to 37, while in the Sindh Assembly, there are nine SIC members, three members of Grand Democratic Alliance and one member of Jamaat-e-Islami.

Likewise, a notification has also been issued for reserved seats for women from Punjab in the National Assembly, under which the PPP got two seats and PMLN got one seat, Samina Khalid Ghurki, Natasha Daultana and Tamkin Niazi were elected MNAs. Neelam, James Iqbal and Ramesh Kumar were elected MNAs on minority seats, one each to PMLN, PPP and JUIF.

The ECP has issued a notification for 10 women reserved seats in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly: eight went to JUIF and two to PMLN. According to an ECP notification, eight women reserved seats in NA from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa are given to PMLN’s Sobia Shahid, Ghazala Anjum, Shela Bano and Shaheen while PPP’s Asma Alamgir and Naeema Kanwal and Naeema Kishwar and Sadaf Ehsan of JUIF.