Members of Punjab Assembly set to take oath today

LAHORE  – The newly-elected members of the Punjab Assembly are set to take oath today (Friday), thus formally launching the process to form the government in Pakistan’s most-populated province.

It is necessary to convene the first session of the House within 20 days of holding elections which were held on Feb 8, resulting in the PML-N gaining the largest number of seats in the provincial legislature.

However, the PML-N – which has nominated Maryam Nawaz, the party’s chief organiser and political scion of three-time prime minister Nawaz Sharif, for the chief minister’s slot – has managed to get the support of a large number of independents.

As a result, it is expected Maryam will become the first woman chief minister in the country’s history with the backing of over 190 directly-elected members as well as many of those entering the Punjab Assembly on the reserved seats for women and minorities.

However, the number of reserved seats to be allocated to different parties isn’t clear as the PTI-backed independents have joined the Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC) and the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) will determine whether it is eligible for the purpose.

During the session starting at 10am, the House will first elect the speaker and the deputy speaker and then the chief minister.

On the other hand, the PML-N has summoned the meeting to be chaired by Maryam of its parliamentary party at 9am before the start of Punjab Assembly session.

While,

A heavy contingent of police was deployed outside the Punjab Assembly session ahead of its session on Friday (today) as the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf has planned to protest against the alleged snatching of seats in the province through massive rigging.

Newly elected lawmakers were seen arriving at the assembly in the early morning and Aaj News bureau chief Saleem Sheikh reported that victorious candidates and those who have a card would be allowed to enter the House.

The assembly session was convened by Punjab Governor Balighur Rehman at the provincial assembly’s chambers at 10am where newly elected members would take an oath and a new speaker of the House would be elected.

Punjab Assembly session called for oath-taking of newly elected lawmakers

But it did not start at the scheduled time and it was expected that it would be delayed as PML-N parliamentary leaders meeting was supposed to be held before it.

Sheikh said that the session would begin after all the PML-N leaders arrived under the leadership of PML-N’s nominee for the Punjab chief minister position Maryam Nawaz at the chambers.

All the candidates were thoroughly checked by police and unrelated persons were barred from entering the House.