PESHAWAR/QUETTA: The provincial assemblies of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan on Thursday elected Babar Saleem Swati and Abdul Khaliq Achakzai as Speakers, respectively.
In KP Assembly, Babar Saleem Swati of Sunni Ittehad Council (SUI) secured 89 votes whereas Ihsanullah Khan of Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) got 17 votes. A total of 106 votes were polled. On the other side, PTI woman member from Chitral Surayya Bibi was elected as Deputy Speaker of KP Assembly. She bagged 87 votes against her opponent PTI-P’s Arbab Waseem who secured 19 votes.
The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly session for Speaker and Deputy Speaker election was presided over by the outgoing Speaker Mushtaq Ghani.
Outgoing Speaker Mushtaq Ghani administered him oath after PTI’s nominated candidate Babar Saleem Swati, MPA from Mansehra, was elected as Speaker of KP Assembly.
The parliamentary committee of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), in a meeting, had approved Babar Saleem Swati for the slot of Speaker while Surayya Bibi, a returned candidate from Chitral, was approved for Deputy Speaker.
Swati and Surayya Bibi had submitted papers for Speaker and Deputy Speaker positions from the Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC) platform.
Earlier, former National Assembly speaker Asad Qaiser’s brother Aqibullah was nominated for speaker slot but withdrew the nomination a day before the election.
Papers of Ehsanullah Miankhel of the PPP for speaker and Arbab Wasim Hayat of the PTI-Parliamentarian for the deputy speaker had been submitted by the opposition.
The papers of candidates of Sunni Ittehad Council and opposition parties have been declared complete.
Earlier, the newly-elected members of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly took oath of membership amid ruckus caused by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) workers in the legislature.
The session was delayed for more than one hour due to the ruckus caused by PTI workers. The elected lawmakers also faced difficulty in entering the Assembly hall. Speaker Mushtaq Ghani administered oaths to the newly elected provincial legislators.
It is pertinent to mention here that PTI-backed Sunni Ittehad Council has been the largest parliamentary block in KP Assembly with 91 members, while the JUI have 07, PML-N 05, PPP-04, ANP and PTI-P have one member each in the house.
BALOCHISTAN ASSEMBLY: Separately, the Balochistan Assembly elected Pakistan
Muslim League-Nawaz’s Captain Abdul Khaliq Achakzai (Retired) as Speaker and Ghazala Gola as Deputy Speaker unopposed.
It may be recalled that that 57 newly-elected members of the Balochistan Assembly had taken oath on Wednesday. The full strength of the Assembly members is 65.
The PML-N had nominated Captain Abdul Khaliq Achakzai (Retired) as Speaker Balochistan Assembly. PML-N’s nominated candidate for prime ministership Shehbaz Sharif gave approval for the name of Speaker Balochistan Assembly.
None of the rival parties nominated any candidate to contest the elections of Speaker and Deputy Speaker.
Earlier, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) named Captain Abdul Khaliq Achakzai (Retd) as their candidate for the seat of Balochistan Assembly Speaker.
Former prime minister and PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif and the party President Shehbaz Sharif have finaliSed the candidate’s name after consultations with the provincial leadership of the party.
The provincial assembly was due to meet at 3pm in the afternoon to elect the speaker as well the deputy speaker. PPP, on the other hand, had nominated Ghazala Gola, for the seat of deputy speaker.
The maiden session of Balochistan Assembly was held in Quetta on Wednesday with Engineer Zamrak Achakzai in the chair in which newly-elected members of the provincial legislature took oath.
Later on, the newly-elected speaker and deputy speaker took oath.