The Punjab Assembly elected PTI’s Sibtain Khan, a joint candidate of PTI and the PML-Q, as the new speaker on Friday. Opposition protested installation of cameras above the booths and presence of serial numbers on ballot papers.
The Punjab Assembly speaker’s seat fell vacant after the former office bearer, Pervez Elahi was elected as the Punjab chief minister.
Sibtain won the election against the Opposition’s candidate Saif ul Malook Khokhar, who is from the PML-N. Sibtain secured 185 votes while Saiful Malook won 175 votes. Four votes were rejected.
Meanwhile, the opposition demanded suspending the election process and holding the polling again, while the ruling PTI, on the other hand, accused the opposition of stealing four ballot papers.
The session was presided over by the panel of chairs member, Waseem Khan Badozai. The vote count began shortly after the polling ended at around 8:30pm.
Both Pervaiz Elahi and Hamza Shahbaz Sharif were present in the assembly.
Deputy Speaker Dost Mohammad Mazari, who faced a backlash from the PTI MPAs and was bombarded with lotas on Friday, also cast his vote.
PTI’s Shireen Mazari congratulated the new speaker after the election, and termed his victory “another failure for the imported govt”.
Congratulations to PTI’s Sardar Sibtain Khan on being elected Speaker Punjab Assembly. A great success for PTI & PMLQ led by Imran Khan. Another failure for Imported govt.#رجیم_چینج_ناکام
— Shireen Mazari (@ShireenMazari1) July 29, 2022
Earlier, a joint provincial parliamentary party meeting of the PTI and the PML-Q took place with Chief Minister Chaudhry Parvez Elahi in the chair. Senior PTI leaders Shah Mahmood Qureshi, Fawad Chaudhry, Asad Umar and Umer Cheema were also part of the meeting.
Sibtain Khan, the PTI lawmaker from Mianwali, has been nominated by the ruling coalition comprising PTI and PML-Q for the office of the speaker, while opposition parties PML-N and PPP have fielded Khokhar as their joint candidate.
