PTI consolidates position in NA as MNAs take oath tomorrow

ISLAMABAD: The newly elected members of the National Assembly are set to take the oath on Monday (tomorrow).

The leader of the lower house of parliament, who automatically becomes prime minister of the country, will be elected on August 17, according to schedule.

After the oath of MNAs, the elections of the speaker and deputy speaker of the National Assembly will be held on August 15. Candidates up for the coveted posts will file their nomination papers to the speaker office on August 14.

The NA speaker will be elected first after which he will conduct the election of the deputy speaker.

The deadline for the submission of the nominations for prime minister office is 2:00 pm on August 16 as the election of the PM will be held the next day (August 17). President Mamnoon Hussain will administer the oath to the prime minister after his election.

It is pertinent to mention here that the PTI has nominated party chief Imran Khan as its candidate for the prime minister office.

It has nominated Asad Qaiser for the post of speaker National Assembly, while the joint opposition, comprising 11 political parties, has fielded Syed Khursheed Shah for the post and Maulana Fazlur Rehman’s son Asadur Rehman for the post of deputy speaker.

The PML-N president Shehbaz Sharif has been named as the opposition’s candidate for the PM slot.

– PTI grabs 158 NA seats –

The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s (PTI) tally reached 158 members in the National Assembly after it secured 28 reserved seats for women and five for religious minorities.

The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) issued a notification, allocating reserved seats for women and minorities to political parties according to their total tally in the National Assembly.

The National Assembly has 342 seats. Of these, 272 are filled by direct elections. While, the reserved 10 seats for religious minorities and 60 seats for women are filled by proportional representation among parties with more than 5% of the vote.

Out of 60 reserved seats for women, the PTI has bagged 28, the Pakistan Muslim League-N 16, the Pakistan Peoples Party nine, the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal two and one each by the Grand Democratic Alliance, the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan, the Pakistan Muslim League-Q, the Balochistan Awami Party and the Balochistan National Party.

Out of 10 reserved seats for minorities, the PTI has secured five, followed by the PML-N and the PPP with two each, while, the MMA has secured one seat.

The PTI maintains the lead as tally rises to 158 seats in the NA, followed by the PML-N with 82, the PPP 53, the MMA 15, the MQM-P seven, the PML-Q five, the BAP five and the BNP four.

The notifications have also been issued for 66 women and eight minority members in Punjab, 29 women and nine minority members in Sindh, 22 women and three minority members in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and 11 women and three minority members in Balochistan.

The PTI claims to have garnered support of 180 members of the National Assembly. It has nominated Asad Qaiser as the speaker of the National Assembly and Imran is scheduled to take oath as prime minister on August 18.

As soon as the newly-elected prime minister would take oath, the job of the caretakers would be over and power would be transferred to the newly elected government under the law and the constitution.