PESHAWAR: As many as 115 newly-elected members of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly took their oath on Wednesday as the maiden session was marred by indiscipline, ruckus and chaotic scenes. The session was delayed for more than an hour due to the ruckus caused by PTI workers. The elected lawmakers also faced difficulty in entering the Assembly hall.
Speaker Mushtaq Ghani administered oath to the new elected provincial legislators.
Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) workers reportedly threw a shoe and lota at PML-N female lawmaker Sobia Shahid before the commencement of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly session.
They also chanted slogans against the opposition’s female lawmaker. Though majority of the MPAs were supported by the PTI and even outgoing KP Speaker Mushtaq Ghani also belonged to PTI, still the inaugural session of the new KP Assembly turned into a fish market with rival members raising slogans against each other and female members targeted.
A number of people including PTI workers who were sitting in the gallery without passes were behind the commotion in the house. Meanwhile, Speaker Mushtaq Ghani announced that the election for the slots of new speaker and deputy speaker will be held tomorrow for which nomination papers can be filed by tonight. The PTI-backed candidates nominated Babar Saleem for the speakership.
Earlier, the KP Assembly session which was due to start at 11:00 am started after hours-long delay. The independently-elected candidates who won the general elections with PTI’s support dominated the provincial legislature. In a 145-member House with 27 seats undecided for one reason or another, the PTI-supported candidates have a strength of 87 candidates, followed by JUI and PML-N’s nine , PPPP’s five, PTI-Parliamentarians two, ANP’s one and other independents five.
Newly-elected MPAs will take oath in today’s session after which schedule for electing speaker and deputy speaker of the house will be announced. On the other hand, the Awami National Party (ANP) has announced to hold a protest demonstration outside the provincial assembly.
Nomination papers for the elections for the seats of speaker and deputy speaker were allowed to be filed today by 5:00 PM, and withdrawn by 11:00 PM.
The PTI had yesterday finalized the name of Soraya Bibi as its candidate for the position of Deputy Speaker in the KP Assembly, but its choice for speakership has not yet come to the surface.
Soraya Bibi, who hails from Chitral 1 of BBP, had won a general seat in the assembly. Additionally, she serves as the Vice President of the Malakand Women Wing of Tehreek-e-Insaf and is known for her active involvement in social work.
Ali Amin Gandapur, who is PTI’s nominee for the seat of chief minister, has not as yet joined the Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC), and will take oath as an independent and will contest the CM election as an independent.
It seems that Ali Amin Gandapur if elected will be the first chief minister in any province who will be elected as an independent.
Gandapur, who had contested the general election as a PTI-backed independent candidate, is a nominee for the seat of the provincial chief minister, has not yet joined the Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC) and will take oath today along with other newly elected members of the KP Assembly (MPAs) as an independent. Chief Minister-designate Ali Ameen Gandapur will take oath as an independent member of the house.
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