As many as 11,855 candidates are in the fray for 849 general seats of Pakistan's national and provincial assemblies in the July 25 elections after the completion of scrutiny process, the election commission has said.
The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has issued the final list of candidates, according to which, 3,459 candidates will contest on 272 general seats of the National Assembly, while 8,396 are running for 577 general seats of the four provincial assemblies.
The National Assembly is a democratically elected body consisting of a total of 342 members, of which 272 are directly elected, 60 seats are reserved for women and 10 for religious minorities.
The figures show a significant decrease in the number of candidates compared to the 2013 general elections when a total of 15,629 candidates - 4,671 for National Assembly and 10,958 for provincial assemblies - were in the field, the Dawn reported.
Interestingly, the leadership of major political parties and other political bigwigs are contesting from more than one constituency in the upcoming elections, it said.
Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) president Shahbaz Sharif will contest from four constituencies of three provinces including NA-132 (Lahore), NA-192 (Dera Ghazi Khan), NA-249 (Karachi) and NA-3 (Swat), the report said.
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