Quetta (Web Desk): The newly-elected lawmakers of the Balochistan Assembly were sworn in on Wednesday.
Senior member of Balochistan Assembly, Zamrak Khan Piralizai, presided over the session and administered in the absence of outgoing speaker Mir Muhammad Khan Jamali, who did not attend the meeting due to his illness and other engagements.
The 58 newly-elected lawmakers of the 65-member legislature took oath today.
After administering oath to the newly elected MPAs, Zamrak Khan Piralizai announced that the election for the speaker and deputy speaker of the Balochistan Assembly will be held at 3pm via secret ballot on Thursday.
He said nomination papers for the slots of speaker and deputy speaker can be submitted till 2pm on Thursday.
Following the February 8 general elections, the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) emerged as the largest parties in provincial legislature.
PPP has 11 seats and PML-N has 10 seats while JUI-F and Balochistan Awami Party (BAP) have 10 and five seats respectively.
At least six independent candidates have made it to the Balochistan Assembly along with the National Party (NP) with 3 seats and Balochistan National Party that secured one provincial assembly seat in the general elections.
Meanwhile, there are11 reserved seats for women and 3 for minorities in the provincial legislature.