National Assembly of Pakistan

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 342, of which 266 are directly elected by an adult universal suffrage and a first-past-the-post system to represent their respective constituencies, while 70 are elected on reserved seats for women and religious minorities from all over the country and six on reserved seats for former Federally Administered Tribal Areas. 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.

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; it cannot be dissolved by the Prime Minister of Pakistan.

Election for 13th National Assembly was held on 18 February 2008. New session of National Assembly was started from March 2008. On 17 March 2013, 13th National Assembly was dissolved on completion of its five-year term under Article 52 of the constitution. 2013 Pakistani general election (for the 14th National Assembly) was held on 11 May 2013. Members of 14th National Assembly took oath on 1 June 2013. 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 the Assembly Under Section 58-I and 48-I on the advice of Prime Minister Imran Khan. On 7 April, the Supreme Court of Pakistan set aside the dissolution order, restoring the National Assembly.

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 and walked out and the deputy-speaker of the National Assembly also walked out, leaving the vote to be conducted under the supervision of Ayaz Sadiq, resulting in the election of Shehbaz Sharif as the Prime Minister of Pakistan, and leading to the former prime minister, Imran Khan holding massive rallies against the new government. Then, on 16 October 2022, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) ignored the governments plea to delay the elections for the 8 National Assembly seats that PTI workers had resigned from. Out of these 8, PTI Chairman and now former PM Imran Khan ran for 7 seats. Imran Khan succeeded, losing 1 seat originally held by PTI (Karachi), and returned to the National Assembly for the first time since his ousting in April 2022.