PPP secures Sindh Assembly’s speaker, deputy speaker slots
Pakistan Peoples Party’s Awais Qadir won the post ater securing 111 votes while his opponent Mutahida Qaumi Movement pakistan’ s Sofia Saeed could bag only 36 votes
The Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) on Sunday clinched the top slots of speaker and deputy speaker in Sindh Assembly ater their candidates Awais Qadir and Anthony Naveed secured a majority of votes.
Qadir was elected as the 12th Sindh Assembly speaker by a huge margin of votes on Sunday.
Outgoing speaker ag ha si raj dur ra ni announced the results, saying a total of 147 votes were cast, of which Qadir received 111. Meanwhile, his opponent and MQM-P leader Sofia Shah got 36 votes.
As Qadir walked up to his seat, slogans of “Long Live Bhuto” erupted in the House.
Later, Durrani administered oath to the newlyelected speaker of the house. Qadir is the 12th speaker of the Sindh Assembly.
Earlier, the voting to elect a new speaker of the newly-elected Sindh Assembly was held with members exercised their right one by one. Qadir was facing Mqm-pakistan’s Sofia Shah for the slot of speakership.
Durrani announced that the nomination papers of Qadir and Sofia Shah had been received, adding these nominations were found valid and polling would be held by secret ballot. Durrani then called all the lawmakers in alphabetical order to collect the ballot papers and cast their votes.
Durrani also announced the panel which will be responsible for running the session in absence of a speaker or deputy speaker. The members included Sharjeel Memon, Nida Khurho and Ali Khursheedi.
The assembly’s session began at 11:00 am with speaker Durrani in the chair.
Qadir and Sofia Shah were the candidates for the seat of speaker while PPP’S Anthony Naveed and MQM-P’S Rashid Khan contested for the seat of deputy speaker.
On the other hand, as per the schedule announced for the chief minister’s election due on Monday, the candidates will be able to file their nomination papers between 1:00 pm and 3:00 pm.
Besides that, newly elected PTI and Jamaat-eislami (JI) MPAS were also expected to take oath of their office.
As many as 163 newly-elected members of the 16th Sindh Assembly took oath on Saturday amid no show-up by the Grand Democratic Alliance (GDA), Jamaat-e-islami, Pti-backed independents, and
Jamiat Ulema-e-islam-fazl lawmakers.
Meanwhile, a report said that the new six-party alliance led by the Pakistan Muslim League-nawaz (PML-N) has a clear majority of 207 members in the new National Assembly for the formation of the next government, but its tally falls short of the two-thirds majority.
The alliance comprising the PMLN, Pakistan Peoplespartymutahidaqaumimovementpakistan (MQM-P), Istehkam-e-pakistan Party (IPP), PML-Q and Balochistan Awami Party (BAP) would also get constitutional posts speaker and deputy speaker of the National Assembly easily.
The collective strength of the alliance makes a clear majority in the National Assembly, but remains short of two-thirds majority, which needs the support of around 224 MPS in the lower house of parliament.
Inthe336-memberhouse,169votesarethemagic number for the formation of a government, and around 224 are needed for the two-third majority.
The PML-N has emerged as the largest parliamentary party with 108 members ater adding 20 reserved seats for women and four for the minorities. It got elected 75 members for the National Assembly and ater nine independents joined it, its tally reached 84. With the allocation of 20 reserved seats for women and four for minorities, its total strength has reached 108 members.
The PPP has 54 elected members and ater addition of 12 reserved seats for women and two for minorities, its total strength in the National Assembly has reached 68 members.
The total number of PML-N and PPP MPS makes the magic number of 169, needed for the formation of a government as members of both parties have a total strength of 168 members.
The MQM-P got its 17 members elected in the general elections and with the addition of four reserved seats for women and one for minorities, its total strength becomes 22 members in the National Assembly.
The PML-Q got elected three members and with one independent joining it, and addition of one reserved seat for women, its strength in the National Assembly has reached five. The IPP got electeditsthreememberstothenationalassembly.