Shehbaz Sharif, Omar Ayub in one-to-one contest for prime minister slot

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s National Assembly is set to witness a one-to-one contest for the post of prime minister of leader of the house tomorrow (Sunday) as nomination papers of allied parties’ candidate Shehbaz Sharif and PTI-backed Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC) candidate Omar Ayub have been approved, ARY News reported on Saturday.

Newly-elected National Assembly Speaker Ayaz Sadiq approved the nomination papers of Shehbaz Sharif and Omar Ayub Khan for the prime minister election after scrutiny.

The election for the Prime Minister will take place during the session of the National Assembly scheduled for Sunday at 11 am. The election would be conducted through the division of members in the House.

MQM-P, IPP, and PPP have all backed the PML-N’s candidate, ensuring that he will be smoothly elected for the prime minister’s slot once again. On the other hand, Omar Ayub does not have the numbers.

Ishaq Dar, Hanif Abbasi, and Khursheed Shah submitted the documents on behalf of Shehbaz Sharif. Seven MNAs are proposers and seven others are seconders for the former PM’s nomination papers.

Meanwhile, nomination papers of Omar Ayub Khan were proposed by MNAs Barrister Gohar Ali Khan, Asad Qaiser, Riaz Khan Fatyana, Umair Khan Niazi, and seconded by MNAs Mohammad Sanaullah Khan Mastikhel, Ali Khan Jadoon, Mujahid Ali, and Malik Mohammad Amir Dogar.

Pakistan People’s Party and PML-N got their speaker and deputy speaker elected with ease in Friday’s session, defeating the SIC and PTI-backed candidates.

Following the prime minister’s election, the newly-elected lawmakers will also elect a new head of the state on March 9, marking an end to the tenure of PTI-backed President Arif Alvi.

Here’s how the prime minister of Pakistan is elected

As per the Constitution, before the voting process begins for the slot of Prime Minister, “bells” will ring for five minutes inside the Parliament House to inform every member — in case they are not present in the chamber at the moment — to gather inside.

Once the process begins, the doors will be locked, and no one will be allowed to enter or leave the hall till the PM’s election is concluded.

Under the supervision of the Speaker, voting will be held through division. For example, if there are two candidates, the Speaker will say that ‘whoever wants to vote for candidate A can go to lobby A’ and ‘whoever wants to vote for candidate B, can go to lobby B’. If there are three candidates then there can be a lobby C as well.

At the entrance of the said lobbies, there will be a member of the Assembly Secretariat staff who will record the name of every Member of the National Assembly in the register. The whole process will be open and people sitting in the galleries will be able to see who votes for whom.

The political parties have to vote collectively and every member has to vote for the candidate that their party is voting for.

Section 91(4) of the Constitution states, “The Prime Minister shall be elected by the votes of the majority of the total membership of the National Assembly: Provided that, if no member secures such a majority in the first poll, a second poll shall be held between the members who secure the two highest numbers of votes in the first poll and the member who secures a majority of votes of the members present and voting shall be declared to have been elected as Prime Minister: Provided further that, if the number of votes secured by two or more members securing the highest number of votes is equal, further poll shall be held between them until one of them secures a majority of votes of the members present and voting.”