Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: The MNA elects of the 15th National Assembly of Pakistan have taken oath in Islamabad today.

Many political leaders who have historically been present in the parliament, regardless of their party having the numbers in the house or not, are not present as MNA elects today.

Former prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi and Yousaf Raza Gillani are not present as MNA elects in the National Assembly today.

Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leaders Abid Sher Ali, Talal Chaudhry and Saad Rafique are also not a part of the 15th National Assembly.

Pashtunkhwa Milli Party’s chairman Mehmood Khan Achakzai and Awami National Party’s (ANP) Ghulam Ahmed Bilour were not able to make it to the National Assembly.

ANP President Anfandyar Wali Khan was also not elected to the National Assembly in the 2018 elections.

The chairman of Jamiat-Ulema-e-Islam-F (JUI-F) chairman Maulana Fazl ur Rehman was also not able to retain his MNA seat and has made allegations of widespread rigging.

Muttahida Qaumi Movement’s (MQM)’s Farooq Sattar was also not able to retain his seat in the National Assembly.

On the contrary, however, Pakistan Peoples Party’s (PPP) 29-year-old chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has been elected as the MNA for the first time in his political career.

Bilawal Bhutto took oath today following the footsteps of his grandfather Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto and his mother, former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto.

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.