Pakistan’s newly-elected Parliament on Wednesday voted nominees of Prime Minister-in-waiting Imran Khan’s party as the Speaker and the Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly, kicking off the process of transition and handing over powers to the new Government.
Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf’s Asad Qaiser, a former speaker of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly, defeated Pakistan Peoples Party’s (PPP) stalwart Syed Khursheed Shah, who was fielded by the joint Opposition alliance for the Speaker’s post.
The election was held through secret ballot. Qaiser received 176 votes against Shah’s 146. Eight votes were rejected. Outgoing Speaker Ayaz Sadiq administered the oath to Qaiser among loud chants of “vote ko izzat do” (give value to the votes) by opposition lawmakers, the report said.
After the announcement, Qaiser shook hands with opposition leaders seated in the front row. He will supervise the election process of the PM.
later, Qaiser oversaw the election of the deputy speaker. PTI’s Qasim Suri was elected as deputy speaker. He defeated opposition candidate — Asad Rehman of Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA).
Suri got 183 votes while his opponent Rehman got 144 votes. One vote was rejected.
Strict security measures were put in place to avoid any untoward incident during the proceedings.
After the election of speaker and deputy speaker, the process for election of prime minister or leader of the house has started for which 65-year-old Khan has filed his nomination papers.
Joint opposition has announced to field Shehbaz Sharif against Khan. Election for the premiership will be held on August 17. The voting will be held in open through division of members in different galleries designated for different candidates.