JUI-F leader Zahid Akram Durrani Thursday took oath as the Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly. Durrani was elected unopposed during the session chaired by Speaker Raja Pervaiz Ashraf. Ashraf also administered him the oath. In his maiden address, Durrani thanked the party chief Fazlur Rehman for reposing his trust in him. Durrani said his party believed in democracy and the Constitution and that it would be followed in future as well. Minister for Communications Asad Mahmood expressed the resolve to bring pro-people policies to provide relief to the masses. “We have to lessen people’s suffering like inflation and shortage of electricity,” he said. The minister also stressed the need for focusing on electoral reforms at the earliest to ensure transparent and credible elections. Taking the floor, JUI-F leader Abdul Akbar Chitrali said utility bills of mosques and seminaries should be exempted from taxes. He also demanded to declare Friday as a weekly off-day instead of Sunday and introduction of proportionate representation in the country. Ahmed Hussain Dehar criticized the policies of the previous government and urged the youth to be aware of the traps of the past rulers. He said moral values and traditions were disrespected during the past regime. Mir Munawwar Ali Talpur drew attention of the House toward shortage of water in Sindh and urged the government to pay attention to this respect. Those who spoke on floor of the House included Raja Riaz, Ramesh Kumar, Murtaza Javed Abbasi, Dr Shazia Sobia Aslam Soomro, Mohsin Shah Nawaz Ranjha, Maulana Muhammad Anwar, and Aliya Kamran. Later, the speaker announced the adjournment of the session. The lower house of the parliament is running without opposition as all members of the PTI had tendered resignations last week in accordance with the party leadership’s decision. Meanwhile, Speaker Raja Pervaiz Ashraf started the process of verification of resignations of 123 members of the PTI by calling them individually or in small groups over the next few days as some two dozen MNAs belonging to the formerly ruling party approached him seeking a meeting to clarify their stance. Sources told Daily Times that majority of the resignations submitted by the PTI MNAs were not handwritten and had a similar text printed on the PTI’s letterhead. They said the secretariat staff also had doubts about the signatures of some members as these were not matching with those on the assembly’s roll. The sources disclosed that at least 25 PTI MNAs had separately written to Speaker Ashraf, requesting for an appointment so that they could explain the circumstances under which they had to submit the resignations.