ISLAMABAD: The first session of the newly elected National Assembly will be held on June 1 with MNAs-elect taking oath on the first day.
The summary for summoning of the session on June 1 was forwarded to President Asif Ali Zardari on Monday. Under Article 54 of the constitution, the National Assembly shall meet on the twenty-first day following the day on which general election to the assembly is held. June 1 is the last day for the expiry of this constitutional deadline after general polls that were held on May 11. The nomination papers for the election of the National Assembly’s speaker and deputy speaker would be filed on June 2, whereas the election would be held on June 3.
The nomination papers for the election of the leader of the Lower House would be submitted on June 4 and election for it would be held on June 5. The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) which has secured simple majority will have its speaker, deputy speaker and leader of the House. The PML-N has a simple majority of 144 members in the House after 18 more members joined it. The party had won 126 seats in the election. It has already nominated Nawaz Sharif as the next leader of the House and he is certain to sail through easily on the back of his party’s simple majority in the House.
On the other hand, opposition parties Pakistan People’s Party Parliamentarians (PPPP) and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) have do not have enough strength in the House to put up a fierce fight to the nominees of the PML-N for speaker, deputy speaker and leader of the House. However, the PML-N is still undecided about who to nominate as its candidate for speaker and deputy speaker and brainstorming for this purpose is going on, party sources told Daily Times on Monday.
In order to take the smaller provinces along, the PML-N leader is also thinking about taking the speaker from Balochistan, the most deprived province and has considered Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party chief Mahmood Khan Achakzai for this slot. For deputy speaker, Dr Tariq Fazal Chaudhry and a women party member of the House are being onsidered, sources said.
Meanwhile, the first session of the newly elected Punjab Assembly will be held on Saturday, June 1. The interim government of Punjab has sent a summary to the provincial governor in this regard, official sources said. After the approval of the governor, the session will be held in which newly elected members of assemblies would take oath. They will cast their vote through secret ballot to elect the new speaker and deputy speaker on June 3. After one day’s lapse for filing of nomination papers, the new chief minister will be elected through open ballot on June 5.
The sessions of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Sindh assemblies have been summoned on Wednesday (tomorrow) in Peshawar and Karachi, respectively. The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa governor has summoned the newly elected Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly to meet at the assembly building on Wednesday at 10am. The elected members of the assembly will take oath on the day. In addition to the election and oath-taking of the speaker, deputy speaker, the election of provincial chief minister will also be held. – DailyTimes
