National Assembly to elect Pakistan prime minister on Monday

The session of the National Assembly to elect a new Leader of the House will meet on Monday at 2pm, after Imran Khan was removed from premiership through a no-confidence vote in the early hours of Sunday.

Presided over by Ayaz Sadiq – a member of the panel of chairs – the session was adjourned at 2 am on Sunday after concluding the voting on the no-confidence motion.

According to the National Assembly Secretariat, nomination papers for the election of the new leader of the House could be submitted by 2:00 pm today (Sunday).

Scrutiny of the nomination papers would be carried out till 3:00 pm while elections for the prime minister would be held on Monday at 2 pm.

PTI nominates Shah Mahmood for PM’s slot

Meanwhile, PTI Vice-chairperson Shah Mahmood Qureshi submitted nomination papers for the election of prime minister to be held on Monday.

PTI’s Maleeka Bokhari and Amir Dogar submitted the nomination papers on his behalf.

The decision to nominate Qureshi for the prime minister’s slot was made during a meeting of the party’s core committee headed by Imran Khan.

On the other hand, the united opposition had nominated PML-N President Shehbaz Sharif as their candidate for the prime minister’s election.

Back to the pavilion

High drama that had gripped the country for the last few weeks ended an hour past midnight on Sunday as the opposition’s no-trust motion against Imran succeeded with 174 members in a 342-member strong house voting in favour of the motion.

Caught at deep midwicket

After the vote on the motion, Ayaz Sadiq of PML-N, who was chairing the session, announced that officially, 174 members of the National Assembly have voted in favour of the no-confidence motion. Sadiq did not cast his vote.

Earlier, Speaker Qaiser said he resigned in a show of his strong loyalty to his leader – Imran Khan, who had shared with him the “threat letter” that the government had purportedly received from the US.

Taking the floor after the success of the no-confidence motion, the Opposition Leader in the National Assembly and the joint opposition’s candidate for the premiership Shehbaz Sharif said that he would heal the wounds of the nation by adopting a reconciliation policy.

“We will not take revenge from anybody,” he said, adding that there will be no injustice and innocent people will not be sent behind the bars. He, however, said that the law will take its course.