New era, same old faces
Post-July 25 Pakistan is being termed as ‘new Pakistan’ and this was also the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s (PTI) election slogan. However, after having a look at the names sent by the major political parties to National Assembly (NA) on seats reserved for women, one cannot help saying that old faces have returned to NA, to help make a new Pakistan.
The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has issued list of the Members of the National Assembly (MNA) on seats reserved for women in proportion with the wining number of each party.
Very few workers — devoted party members — have found their place in this list of women MPs. Mostly, wives, daughters, sisters and relatives of the lawmakers or personal choices of the party leaders have been sent to the Parliament.
In the PTI, former chief minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Pervaiz Khattak’s relatives Nafeesa Khattak and Sajida Begum have been sent to NA, on women’s reserved seats. PTI’s former MNA Shireen Mazari has also made a comeback. Other MNAs on reserved seats are Munaza Hasan and Andleeb Abbas.
In case of PML-N, MNA Chaudhry Jaffar Iqbal’s relatives Zeb Jaffar and Maiza Hameed — his daughter and niece — have got the chance to serve the nation once again. Former special assistant to the prime minister on foreign affairs, Tariq Fatimi’s wife Zahra Wadood, has also been fortunate to find her place in the Assembly. Musarrat Asif and Shiza Fatima, wife and niece of PML-N MNA from Sialkot and close confidant of its leader Nawaz Sharif — Khawaja Asif — have been notified by the ECP on the recommendation of the party. Former Information Minister Marriyum Aurangzeb and her mother, former MNA Tahira Aurangzeb, have once again been sent to the Lower House of the Parliament.
PML-N leader Chaudhry Jaffar Iqbal’s wife Ishrat Ashraf has also secured a seat in the Punjab Assembly on reserved seat.
Again in PML-N, former Punjab finance minister Aisha Ghaus Pasha, also wife of former federal finance minister Hafeezullah Pasha, has been sent to NA on a reserved seat. In MMA, the wife of former President of the Supreme Court Bar Association Kamran Murtaza, Alia Kamran has been notified as MNA from Balochistan. Pakistan Peoples Party’s (PPP) former foreign minister Hina Rabbani Khar has been nominated on a reserved seat for NA. Shagufta Jumani, Shazia Marri and Naz Baloch are also among the lucky ones for National Assembly of Pakistan.