Agriculturists, landlords, businessmen dominate NA

ISLAMABAD: Agriculturists, businessmen, landlords, medical and law practitioners dominate the newly-elected National Assembly members.

The House consists of 79 agriculturists, 69 businessmen, 19 agriculturists-businessmen, 32 full time politicians and social workers and activists, 24 landlords, 4 teachers, 27 law and medical practitioners, whereas 37 have not shared information in their Form B and affidavits.

There are 101 graduates while another 49 have master’s degree in various disciplines, 35 are law graduates, 20 of them are matriculate and one each is under matric and illiterate in the legislature. Interestingly, five female legislators hold M Phil and PhD degrees as compared to only one male lawmaker.

The legislature has eight billionaires, including a Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf lawmaker from Peshawar, who is the wealthiest lawmaker with assets over Rs3.2 billion, says a report, issued by the Free and Fair Election Network (Fafen).

The report is based on the information contained in Form-B and affidavits as annexed to the nomination papers submitted to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) by the contesting candidates of General Election 2018. Values in foreign currency have been converted into Pakistani rupee using the online currency conversion.

The ruling PTI is in the lead in term of receiving funds from its 81 legislators, followed by PML-N with 54 contributors, PPP with 32, Balochistan Awami Party and Balochistan National Party with two each and one belongs to Awami National Party. Hence, a total of 172 legislators contributed to the party funding.

There are as many as 35 lawmakers having criminal cases pending against them in various courts. Of these, 18 of them belong to the PTI, 9 to the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, 5 to the Pakistan People’s Party and one each to the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan and the Balochistan Awami Party and one is independent MNA.

About wealthy MNAs, four billionaires belong to the PTI, two to the PML-N and one each to the PPP and the Awami National Party. The report is based on information contained in Form B and affidavits annexed to the nomination papers submitted by the candidates to the Election Commission of Pakistan for the 2018 general elections. Fafen has converted the values in foreign currency in Pakistani rupees at the rate applicable on August 13.

PTI MNA from Peshawar Noor Alam Khan tops the list with assets worth over Rs3.2billion, followed by PML-N’s Ehsanul Haq Bajwa from Bahawalnagar, who has the net worth estimated at Rs2.30 billion. PPP chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari, who has been elected from NA-200, Larkana, also has assets and cash worth Rs1.54billion.

Likewise, PTI MNA from Karachi Najeeb Haroon has net worth of Rs1.32 billion, while another PML-N MNA from Bahawalnagar, Noorul Hassan Tanvir has assets valued at Rs1.25 billion. PTI’s Sher Akbar Khan, MNA from Buner, Yaqoob Shaikh from DI Khan and ANP’s Amir Haider Azam Khan have cash and other valuables worth over Rs1 billion.

Similarly, according to the report, five MNAs have assets worth less than Rs1 million: two of them belong to the PTI while one each to the PML-N, MQM-P and PPP. PTI’s Farrukh Habib from Faisalabad has net asset value of Rs932,945; while Zill e Huma of the same party has Rs700,000. Romina Khurshid Alam of the PML-N has Rs500,000; MQM-P’s M Salahuddin, MNA from Hyderabad, has assets and cash worth only Rs800,178 and Nasiba Channa of the PPP is in possession of Rs340,500.