Lahore (Web Desk): The newly elected members of the Punjab Assembly took oath on Friday.
Chairing the session, Punjab Assembly Speaker Muhammad Sibtain Khan administered oath to the newly-elected members of provincial assembly (MPAs) during the 42nd session at the assembly chambers.
The speaker felicitated the 315 MPAs on the occasion. He expressed the hope that they will discharge their duties to the aspirations of the masses.
Earlier, the PA session started with a delay of two hours against its scheduled time of 10am.
At the outset of the session, members of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC) raised slogans against each other.
Punjab Assembly Secretary Amer Habib, on the directions of the Chair, announced the Panel of Chairman comprising MPAs Malik Muhammad Ahmed Khan, Syed Ali Haider Gilani, Saima Kanwal and Raheela Naeem.
The secretary also announced a schedule of the election to the office of the Speaker and Deputy Speaker PA.
As per the schedule, the nomination papers for the Speaker and Deputy Speaker may be submitted by5 pm on Friday (today). The scrutiny of the nomination papers for the Speaker will be held at 5:10 pm while scrutiny of the Deputy Speaker’s nomination papers will be at 5:20 pm.
The election of the Speaker and Deputy Speaker will be held on February 24, 2024 (Saturday) through secret ballot in the assembly chambers.
Outgoing Speaker Sibtain Khan will chair the election of the next Speaker of the Punjab Assembly while the newly elected Speaker by the House will conduct the election of the Deputy Speaker.
Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz’s (PML-N) Vice President and Chief Organizer Maryam Nawaz is one of the newcomers stepping into the provincial legislature as an elected member.
She had won the national and provincial assembly seats NA-119 and PP-159, in the February 8 general elections however, the PML-N's vice president has resigned from the NA-119 and taken oath as MPA Punjab Assembly.
It is pertinent to mention that the PML-N has nominated Maryam Nawaz as the party’s candidate for the office of Punjab chief minister.
Earlier, Punjab Governor Baleeghur Rehman and Sindh Governor Kamran Tessori summoned the provincial assembly sessions after the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) allocated reserved seats for women and minorities to the respective parties based on their performance in the general seats.
The Sindh Assembly session is scheduled for February 24 (Saturday).
While the ECP is yet to allocate reserved seats in the National Assembly (NA), as well as the provincial legislatures of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (KP) and Balochistan, the parliamentary affairs ministry forwarded a summary to President Arif Alvi, proposing to summon the National Assembly session between February 26-28.
