KP Assembly to elect chief minister on Aug 16

PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly would elect the new leader of the House on Thursday (August 16), announced the newly elected Speaker KP assembly Mushtaq Ghani during the assembly session.

Speaker Mushtaq Ghani after taking oath of his office before adjourning the session till tomorrow 11am announced scheduled the election of Chief Minister.

The chair asked the aspirant members to submit their nomination papers for the election of Chief Minister by 4pm of August 15 (Wednesday afternoon).

The PTI nominated Mehmood Khan from Swat as their candidate for the slot of Chief Minister KP whereas the opposition party yet to announce their consensual candidate for the leader of the House.

The sources in the assembly said that the joint opposition likely to field the former Chief Minister and JUIF leader Akram Khan Durrani for the election of CM.

In the earlier, polling held for the election of Speaker and Deputy Speaker, the PTI candidate Mushtaq Ghani secured 81 votes as against 27 by the opposition joint candidate Laiq Muhammad Khan.

Interestingly, in the election of Deputy Speaker the PTI’s candidate Mehmood Jan gets three votes short of the speaker voting as he secured 78 against the nominee of opposition Jamshaid Mohmand of PMLN obtained 30.

The reduction in Deputy Speaker’s votes was caused due to rejection of one vote, absence of MPA and occupying the office of Speaker by PTI’s candidate Mushtaq Ghani as such he could not vote for his deputy.

It merits a mention here that 108 votes were polled for the election of Speaker out of 124 strength of the House. A total of 112 MPAs took oath on the first day of the assembly session whereas five seats were vacated by the PTI’s winners including Pervez Khattak who vacated two seats and opted for the National Assembly. Similarly, one seat each was vacated by Asad Qaiser, Dr Haider Ali and Dr Amjad, Ali Amin Gandapur and ANP’s Haider Khan Hoti.

The election has been withheld on two provincial constituencies after assassinations of two candidates Haroon Bilour and Ikramnullha Khan Gandapur while the ECP had announced fresh election on PK-23 Shangla. Similarly two women elected on the reserved seats yet to take oath of their offices.