Daily Times

All arrangements have been completed in the Punjab Assembly for the Presidential Elections scheduled for today (Tuesday) in which the House of Punjab Assembly will be the polling station for 354 Members of Provincial Assembly from the province.

All the four Provincial Assemblies and both the upper and lower house of the parliament constituted the Electoral College for the Presidential Elections. Every Member of the National Assembly and Senate will have one vote each for the election. For provincial assemblies, the Balochistan Assembly will be the baseline for other provincial assemblies with 65 members as every provincial assembly equally constitutes the electoral college for the election of president.

In Punjab Assembly, there would be 62 votes on a whole for the election of president as the house is lacking 17 members from its original strength of 371 because 17 seats are vacant in the Punjab Assembly. Keeping in view the strength of political parties in the Punjab Assembly, Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) would get 30 votes followed by 28 votes of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PMLN). Two votes would be grabbed by Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid while Pakistan People’s Party and independents would constitute a vote each in the Punjab Assembly for the Presidential Elections. Every member of the Punjab Assembly would have 0.17 vote each keeping in view the baseline of the Balochistan Assembly.

Chief Justice Lahore High Court Justice Yawar Ali who will be the presiding officer for the polling in the Punjab Assembly called on Acting Speaker Sardar Dost Muhammad Mazari on Monday to review the arrangements for the Presidential Elections. Punjab Assembly Secretary Muhammad Khan Bhatti gave a detailed briefing regarding maintaining the secrecy and other arrangements during the polling process to CJ upon his visit. The polling process would continue without any break from 10am to 4pm and the MPAs wouldn’t be allowed to carry their mobile phones in the polling station.

The ruling PTI has nominated MNA from Karachi Dr Arif Alvi as its candidate while Chaudhry Aitazaz Ahsan will be the candidate of PPP. MMA President Maulana Fazlur Rahman is the candidate of joint opposition excluding the PPP for the presidential election. All the three candidates have already visited the provincial capital in order to have meetings with the MPAs for their election campaign.

The parliamentary party meeting of PPP was held at the residence of MPA Syed Ali Haider Gillani in Lahore while PML-N had a meeting at the Model Town secretariat. The parliamentary leader of PPP in the Punjab Assembly Hassan Murtaza said on the occasion that PPP is in contact with the MPAs of other parties as well and it can give a surprise today.

“The credentials of Aitazaz Ahsan are matchless as compared to other candidates due to his services for democracy and many MPAs of Punjab will definitely vote for him,” he said as it would be secret balloting.

Published in Daily Times, September 4^th 2018.