24 newly-elected MNAs are matriculate: FAFEN

NA also has seven female and 11 male MBBS or BDS doctors

ISLAMABAD: The Fair and Free Election Network (FAFEN) report on Thursday revealed that 24 newly-elected MNAs merely have the qualification of matriculation while two of them are not even matriculate.

The report stated that out of these 24 matriculated legislators, four are female and 20 are male legislators, who made their way into the lower house of parliament as a result of the general elections on July 25. The MNAs considered matriculate are those who have completed matric, O Levels and SSC.



At present, the National Assembly has a female MNA who has received no education. Meanwhile, there are 15 female and 101 male legislators who have the qualification of Bachelors, which includes the degrees of BA, BSc, B.Com, BBA, BIT, BCS and Graduate

There are a total of 23 female and 49 male legislators who have the qualification of Masters, which includes the degrees of MA, MSc, MBA, MS, BA Honors and B Com Honors. Moreover, a total of four female and 35 male legislators are law graduates who got elected or in case of reserved seats got selected to the National Assembly of Pakistan.

The National Assembly also has seven female and 11 male MBBS or BDS doctors. There are also four female and 11 male legislators who have the qualification of intermediate. The Lower House also has five post graduate (MPhil, PhD) female and one male legislator.

The National Assembly has nine legislators who have the degree of Shahadatul Almiya, which is a religious education. Moreover, there are 20 male and two female legislators whose information in this context is not available.

The 12^th National Assembly of Pakistan, which was elected in 2002 during the regime of General (retd) Pervez Musharraf, is still known as the graduate assembly of Pakistan since it was binding for the legislators to be at least a graduate by qualification.

However, this condition was later removed, which paved the way for many politicians without a university degree to become MNAs.  The only figure common in the assembly of 2002 and 2018 is Dr Amir Liaquat Hussain. Earlier, he was elected on the ticket of Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) and this time he was elected to the lower house on the ticket of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI).

The FAFEN report also revealed the professional diversity of the legislators. A total of 79 legislators are agriculturist by profession, including two female and 77 male legislators. Moreover, 69 legislators of the current house are businessperson, 19 are agriculturist and businessperson and five are associated with real estate business as profession.



A total of 32 legislators are full time parliamentarian/politician, politician or social activists. Moreover, 24 of these legislators are ‘landlord’ by profession and 15 female legislators have declared themselves as housewife.

There are 14 legislators who are law practitioners, 13 are medical practitioners, 11 are teachers and nine are self-employed. Two legislators are retired army officers and one legislator has shown ‘media’ as his profession while information of 37 legislators is not available.