National Assembly of Pakistan

National Assembly of Pakistan ایوانِ زیریں Aiwān-e-Zairīñ قومی اسمبلی Qọ̄mī Assembly
16th National Assembly of Pakistan
Type
Type	Lower house of the Parliament of Pakistan
Term limits	5 years
History
Founded	1973; 51 years ago (1973)
Leadership
Speaker	Ayaz Sadiq, PMLN since 1 March 2024
Deputy Speaker	Ghulam Mustafa Shah, PPP since 1 March 2024
Leader of the House	Shehbaz Sharif, PMLN since 3 March 2024
Leader of the Opposition	Omar Ayub Khan, Independent[1] since 2 April 2024[2]
Structure
Seats	336
Political groups	Government (144)   PML(N) (111)   MQM-P (21)   PML(Q) (5)   IPP (4)   BAP (1)   NP (1)   PML(Z) (1) Confidence and supply   PPP (68) Opposition (99)   SIC (42)[a]   PTI[b][3] (38)   JUI-F (8)   BNP-M (1)   MWM (1)   PKMAP (1)   Independent (8) Suspended (24)[c] Vacant (1)
Elections
Voting system	Mixed member majoritarian 266 members elected by FPTP; 60 seats for women and 10 seats for non-Muslim minorities through PR
Last election	8 February 2024
Next election	2029
Meeting place
National Assembly Secretariat, Islamabad
Website
Official website

The National Assembly of Pakistan (Urdu: ایوانِ زیریں, romanized: Aiwān-e-Zairīñ, IPA: [ɛːʋɑːn-e zɛːrĩː ˌpɑːkɪst̪ɑːn], lit. 'Lower house' or Urdu: قومی اسمبلی, romanized: Qọ̄mī Assembly) is the lower house of the bicameral Parliament of Pakistan, with the upper house being the Senate. As of 2023, the National Assembly has a maximum membership of 336, of which 266 are directly elected by an adult universal suffrage and a first-past-the-post system to represent their respective constituencies, while 60 are elected on reserved seats for women and religious minorities from all over the country. Members hold their seats for five years or until the house is dissolved by the President on the advice of the Prime Minister. The house convenes at the Parliament House, Red Zone, Islamabad.^[4]

Members are elected through the first-past-the-post system under universal adult suffrage, representing electoral districts known as National Assembly constituencies. According to the constitution, the 70 seats reserved for women and religious minorities are allocated to the political parties according to their proportional representation.

Each National Assembly is formed for a five-year term, commencing from the date of the first sitting, after which it is automatically dissolved. The National Assembly can only be dissolved by the President of Pakistan on the Prime Minister of Pakistan advice, it cannot be dissolved by the Prime Minister alone.

The election for the 13th National Assembly was held on 18 February 2008. A new session of the National Assembly was started in March 2008. On 17 March 2013, the 13th National Assembly was dissolved on completion of its five-year term under Article 52 of the constitution.^[5][6] 2013 Pakistani general election (for the 14th National Assembly) was held on 11 May 2013. Members of the 14th National Assembly took oath on 1 June 2013.^[7] The 14th National Assembly dissolved on 31 May 2018 upon completing its 5-year term under Article 52 of the constitution. The 15th National Assembly of Pakistan took their oath on 13 August 2018.

On 3 April 2022, President of Pakistan Arif Alvi dissolved^[8] the Assembly Under Section 58-I and 48-I on the advice of Prime Minister Imran Khan.^[9] On 7 April, the Supreme Court of Pakistan set aside the dissolution order, restoring the National Assembly.^[10] After these events, on 11 April, after National Assembly proceedings, a vote was held on deciding the next prime minister of Pakistan, overseen by Ayaz Sadiq. There were only two candidates contesting, from the PTI, was Shah Mehmood Qureshi, and from the PMLN, Shehbaz Sharif. Before the vote, 123 members of the PTI resigned from the National Assembly. The vote would be conducted under the supervision of Ayaz Sadiq, resulting in the election of Shehbaz Sharif as the Prime Minister of Pakistan. Following this, large political crises occurred across Pakistan in late 2022 and for the duration of 2023 between the ousted Imran Khan and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif until a new assembly was elected in early 2024.

The current National Assembly is the 16th National Assembly of Pakistan, which was formed in February 2024 after the 2024 Pakistani general election. The election was contested for rigging. The 16th assembly has seen various shuffles, including a large bloc of Independent politicians backed by PTI use the Sunni Ittehad Council as a parliamentary vehicle, and several reserved seats being suspended by the Supreme Court of Pakistan due to the Reserved seats case.

Cite error: There are <ref group=lower-alpha> tags or {{efn}} templates on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=lower-alpha}} template or {{notelist}} template (see the help page).