ISLAMABAD: The newly elected members of the National Assembly have taken oath to their office on Monday (today). The elections for the speaker and deputy speaker of the National Assembly will be held on August 15. Candidates up for the coveted posts will file their nomination papers to the speaker’s office on August 14. The NA speaker will be elected first after which he will conduct the election of the deputy speaker. The deadline for the submission of the nominations for prime minister’s office is 2:00 pm on August 16 and the election of the prime minister will be held the next day (August 17). President Mamnoon Hussain will administer oath to the prime minister after his election. As soon as the newly elected prime minister takes oath, the job of the caretakers would be over and power would be transferred to the newly elected government under the law and the constitution. It is pertinent to mention here that the PTI has nominated party chief Imran Khan as its candidate for the prime minister’s office. Asad Qaiser has been nominated by the PTI for the post of National Assembly speaker. The joint opposition comprising 11 political parties has fielded Khursheed Shah for the post of NA speaker and Maulana Fazlur Rehman’s son Asadur Rehman for the post of deputy speaker of the Lower House. PML-N President Shehbaz Sharif has been named as the opposition’s candidate for the prime minister’s slot. On Saturday, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) issued a notification allocating reserved seats for women and minorities to the political parties according to their seats in the National Assembly. The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s seats rose to 158 in the National Assembly after it secured 28 reserved seats for women and five for religious minorities. The National Assembly has 342 seats in total. Of these, 272 are filled by direct elections. While, 10 seats reserved for religious minorities and 60 for women are filled by proportional representation among parties with more than five per cent of the vote. Out of 60 reserved seats for women, the PTI has bagged 28, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) 16, the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) nine, the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) two and one each by the Grand Democratic Alliance (GDA), the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P), the Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q), the Balochistan Awami Party (BAP) and the Balochistan National Party (BNP). Out of the 10 seats reserved for minorities, the PTI has secured five, followed by the PML-N and the PPP with two each, while the MMA has secured one seat. The PTI maintains the lead with 158 seats in the NA, followed by the PML-N with 82, the PPP 53, the MMA 15, the MQM-P seven, the PML-Q five, the BAP five and the BNP four seats. Published in Daily Times, August 13th 2018.