Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) has secured the speaker and deputy speaker positions in the Sindh Assembly. The party’s nominated Awais Qadir Shah was elected as the speaker while Anthony Naveed won deputy speaker seat in voting on Sunday.

Shah received 111 votes, compared to Sofia Saeed of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement – Pakistan (MQM-P) who only managed to receive 36 votes.

Naveed also got 111 votes against MQM-P’s Advocate Rashid Khan who secured 36 votes.

The Sindh Assembly session to elect the next speaker and deputy speaker began with outgoing speaker Agha Siraj Durrani in the chair.

Owais Shah and Anthony Naveed were the PPP’s candidates for speaker and deputy speaker, respectively.

The newly elected members of the Sindh Assembly prayed for the ranks of martyrs at the opening of the session.

During the session, MPs backed by the PTI and now members of the Sunni Ittehad Council shouted slogans denouncing alleged electoral malpractice.

The nomination papers for the posts of speaker and deputy speaker were received on Saturday.

Earlier, about all the newly elected members of the PPP and MQM-P took oath as the provincial legislators but the PTI’s backed independents, JI and GDA boycotted the opening sitting of the 16th Sindh Assembly.

The opposition was seen aligning into a new political formation with parties like JUI-F, PTI, JI, MQM-H, and GDA, which claim ‘rigging’ in the February 8 polls, took out their rallies in the city to protest against the controversial elections.

The administration sealed off key roads, mainly Sharah-e-Faisal, and enforced Section 144 in the Red Zone area, which also houses the Sindh Assembly, as this move was seen as an attempt to prevent the opposition parties from staging protests outside the legislature.

The PPP emerged as the largest political party in Sindh after the hotly fought February 8 elections with 88 seats, followed by the MQM 28, PTI’s independent candidates 14, GDA, and JI, two each, according to the ECP poll results.

Syed Murad Ali Shah is poised to secure another term as Chief Minister of Sindh with overwhelming support. The election for the leader of the house will take place following the takeover of the speaker and deputy speaker.