Islamabad (Staff Report): The 15th session of the National Assembly is being held under the chairmanship of Sardar Ayaz Sadiq to elect its speaker and deputy speaker.
The newly-elected MNAs are voting for their candidates through secret ballot.
The majority party in the House, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), has nominated Asad Qaiser for the slot of speaker, while the joint opposition has fielded Syed Khursheed Shah for the post.
The PTI has named Qasim Suri while the joint opposition has nominated Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal leader Asad Mahmood.
Meanwhile, the Sindh and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Assemblies will also elect Speakers and Deputy Speakers.
Sindh Assembly
In Sindh Assembly, voting has started for the election of Speaker and Deputy Speaker through secret ballot. The session is being presided over by the Presiding Officer for the election, PPP member Nadir Magsi. Three more MPAs took oath of their offices as the session started.
Pakistan Peoples Party, which is the majority party, has Agha fielded Siraj Durrani as their candidate for Speaker and Rehana Leghari as Deputy Speaker while the opposition parties have jointly nominated Javed Hanif as Speaker and Rabia Azfar as Deputy Speaker.
KP Assembly
Voting for the election of Speaker is underway in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly this morning. Senior parliamentarian, Sardar Aurangzeb Nalotha is presiding over the provincial assembly session.
Mushtaq Ahmed Ghani of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and Laiq Ahmed Khan of Awami National Party (ANP) are in the run.
Polling for election of Deputy Speaker will be held after election of the new Speaker. Nadia Sheikh of PTI also took of her office during the session.
Earlier, the newly-elected MPAs took oath of their office during the inaugural session of Punjab Assembly on Wednesday.
Outgoing Speaker Punjab Assembly Rana Muhammad Iqbal administered the oath to the newly elected members of the Punjab Assembly.
The elections for the slots of Speaker and Deputy Speaker of the Punjab Assembly will take place on August 16, after which the new chief minister will be elected through secret balloting.
Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) has nominated Hamza Shehbaz Sharif for the slot of Punjab chief minister. However, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, (PTI) has yet to name its candidate for the position.