Daily Times

PESHAWAR: In a packed session on Monday, 111 newly-elected members of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Assembly took oath for the next five-year term of the House. With stringent security measures put in place at the Assembly’s premises, Sardar Aurangzeb Nalotha, a Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) MPA, administered the oath. He was nominated for the task by Governor Iqbal Zafar Jhagra, since the outgoing speaker, Asad Qaiser, was in attendance at the inaugural National Assembly session where he took oath as an MNA.

The KP assembly has 124 members – 99 elected on general seats, 22 on seats reserved for women, and three on those reserved for minorities. PTI has secured two-thirds majority, and can easily elect its chief minister designate Mahmud Khan, as well as its nominees for speaker and deputy speaker. PTI has secured 84 seats in the House, whereas Mutahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) has stood second with a mere 13 seats. The ANP is on third with just nine seats, followed by PML-N (six) and Pakistan Peoples Party (five).

The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has yet to announce the schedule for the by-election on five seats vacated by those winning multiple seats.

As the session started, dozens of ‘guests’ forced their way inside, chanting ‘Ayi Ayi, PTI’.

Published in Daily Times, August 14^th 2018.