Pakistan’s parliamentary democracy system has a bi-cameral Parliament. The National Assembly is the lower house of Parliament partnering with the Senate as the upper house. The National Assembly represents federating units on the basis of the population in contrast to the Senate which ensures equality in representation, regardless of the population size of any federating unit. This arrangement ensures a balanced representation and distribution of power. The National Assembly’s most important function is legislation which it shares with the Senate. The National Assembly elects the Prime Minister of Pakistan from its own members. The term of the National Assembly is five years and the elections to all of its direct seats are held on the same day across Pakistan. More details about qualifications, elections and the functions of members are listed below:

• Members of the National Assembly are elected by direct voting in a constituency using a ‘first-past-the-post’ system. Candidates obtaining the highest number of votes in a constituency are declared elected.
• The minimum age for contesting National Assembly elections is 25 years.
• National Assembly seats are filled through elections which are referred to as ‘General Elections’.
• Women’s reserved seats are filled using a proportional representation method.
• Women’s seats are filled indirectly for which the whole province is considered as one constituency.
• All parties submit to the ECP a list of women candidates equal to the number of seats fixed for women prior to the elections.
• Based on the results of the General Election for the National Assembly, political parties are given women’s seats in proportion to the National Assembly seats won by each party.
• The ten reserved seats for Non-Muslim Pakistani citizens are filled using the same method as women’s seats.
• If a political party obtains less than five percent of the total direct seats of the National Assembly, neither women nor non-Muslim seats are allocated to them.

COMPOSITION OF THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY

Article 51 of the Constitution deals with the composition of the National Assembly. The Constitution was amended in May 2018 just before the General Election to merge the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP). The provincial number of seats in the National Assembly have been changed due to the new census, but the FATA merger has also changed the KP share.

The new composition of the National Assembly in the Constitution after the 25^th constitutional amendment in May 2018 is:

*The merger of FATA with KP has created a special situation for the General Elections, 2018. The constitutional amendment provides for one-time preservation of 12 FATA seats in the elections. These 12 seats were allocated to FATA as a separate area for representation in the National Assembly before its merger with KP. Now, for the General Election, all other provinces have a new number of seats as per the constitutional amendment and FATA will have a one-time election on its old 12 seats and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa will have an election on its 39 general seats. The 39 general seats of KP and 12 seats of FATA make the total of 51 (six more than the allocation shown in the table above) resulting in an addition of six seats in the total number of the National Assembly. Hence, despite the changes in the provincial share, a special provision in favour of FATA will result in a 342-member National Assembly after the elections, matching the old total number of the National Assembly that existed prior to the 25th constitutional amendment.

After the aforementioned discussion, it is pertinent that the old composition table of the National Assembly be shared for the interest of readers. The table below shows the composition of the National Assembly prior to the 25th constitutional amendment (for the elections of 2002, 2008 and 2013).

The table below shows the National Assembly’s composition since 1997. It is important to note that the composition below for 2002 also applies to 2008 and 2013.