Fehmida elected first woman Speaker

Members of the new National Assembly from a new ruling alliance on Wednesday disseminated rhetorically-controlled but substantially strong anti-Musharraf signals as they elected Speaker and Deputy Speaker with enough majority to humiliate President Musharraf.
President Pervez Musharraf's political allies also appeared to have been forced to tone down support by a secret parliamentary ballot in which over a dozen of their legislators voted against the party candidates. Some of them, however, urged the President's foes to drop their plan of confrontation with him.
MPs from both groups were delivering speeches in the National Assembly as candidates from a four-party ruling coalition won indirect elections through a vote by parliamentarians for the slot of Speaker and Deputy Speaker quite comfortably.
Dr Fehmida Mirza of Pakistan People's Party (PPP) grabbed 249 votes in the 342-seat house to become the first woman Speaker of the country. Her only opponent from PML, Mohammad Israr Tareen, got only 70 votes, indicating some 20 of party members had gone against him. In the contest for Deputy Speaker slot, PPP candidate Faisal Karim Kundi defeated Khushbakhat Shujaat, of Muttahida Quomi Movement (MQM), by 246 votes to 68.
The victory immediately suggested that the new alliance can remove the President through impeachment as it has mustered the support of more than two-thirds majority for which 228 members are needed. The alliance, however, is still short of qualification in the Senate but leaders of component parties are confident of garnering more anti-Musharraf support there also.
Members from Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), Pushtoon nationalist Awami National party (ANP) and Jamiat Ulamae Islam of Fazlur Rehman also voted for PPP candidates under an already agreed power sharing deal.
Fazl himself and his party colleagues, however, did not cast ballot for Fehmida as they said voting for a female was contrary to the ideology of a far-right but a pragmatic group active in Pakistan politics for decades now.
Immediately after the election of Fehmida, PML-N parliamentary leader Javed Hashmi made it clear that the present parliament would neither let Musharraf get vote of confidence nor indemnify his November 3 unconstitutional step of declaring the emergency.
He demanded that the defence budget should be presented to the parliament to debate before its approval. President of Pakistan People's Party-Parliamentarians (PPP-P), Amin Fahim said that the country was in transition to democracy from dictatorship. "Today, Pakistan is moving from dictatorship to democracy. It is our duty to make the country prosper, peaceful and stable," he added.
Awami National Party (ANP) president Asfand Yar Wali was of the view that the decision would have to be made that there was no institution supreme to the parliament. Fazl endorsed other leaders and said all decisions should be made in the parliament rather in Washington or General Headquarters (GHQ). Felicitating Fehmida, opposition leader Pervaiz Ellahi extended full support to the coming government in strengthening democracy.
He wished that the assemblies should complete their tenure, saying, "We will support the government in legislation process for betterment of the country and strengthening of democracy." However, he suggested that for smooth functioning the coming government should avoid indulging in confrontation with other institutions.