Islamabad, July 12: A whopping 79 members of Pakistan's defunct National Assembly stand disqualified from contesting the October 10 elections under the new law which makes it obligatory for contesting candidates to be graduates. According to a list prepared by the government about the educational qualification of MNAs, 79 members including 53 from deposed Premier Nawaz Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League PML (N) would not qualify for filing nomination papers to contest the elections, a report in local daily 'Dawn' said today.

"The casualties are influential leaders of almost all political parties, prominent among them being the PML (QA) – a breakaway faction of deposed Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's Party, PML (Nawaz), Pakistan People's Party (Benazir Bhutto) and Awami National Party," Dawn said. Prominent among the exclusions were former minister Gohar Ayub, who had challenged the government order on BA condition and stepped down yesterday after the supreme court upheld it.

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Ayub, is now in PML (QA). The newspaper said the affectees were likely to be more in parties that have bright chances to win maximum number of seats in the polls. The paper named dy chairman of the Senate Mir Humayun Khan Mari, Lt Gen Majeed Malik, Chaudhry Sher Ali, secretary general of PML (N) and Ghulam Dastagir Khan as under graduates who could not contest elections in future.

Bhutto's party had a better record in the list, with only five of its MNAs and none of the 19 former senators being under-graduates, the paper reported.
Bureau Report