The election of the president and vice president will be held on March 1; NA will elect prime minister on March 4
- Raja Pervez Ashraf will take oath at the inaugural session.
- The president and vice president will be elected tomorrow.
- The House will vote for the election of the prime minister on March 4.
After much controversy and ambiguity surrounding the National Assembly session, the newly elected legislators will take oath at the inaugural session of the 16th session of the lower house, which will meet at 10 am today in Islamabad.
The development comes as the convening of the assembly session, which was to be held on the 21st day after the elections under Article 91 (2) of the Constitution, was surrounded by uncertainty after President Arif Alvi stressed on the allocation of reserved seats before the session. .
Geographic news had reported that the president had neither rejected nor accepted the summary and only communicated his verbal response on the matter.
On Monday, in response to Alvi's reluctance to convene the assembly session, the National Assembly Secretariat convened the session.
However, the president finally called the AN session after political parties warned him of legal consequences.
It is pertinent to mention that the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has allotted reserved seats to political parties but has not given reserved quotas to the Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC) after the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), backed Independent candidates joined the party.
A day earlier, the poll body's five-member bench, headed by Chief Election Commissioner Sikandar Sultan Raja, reserved verdict on the petitions filed by the SIC seeking allocation of seats to women and minorities.
Several politicians, including PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif and Pakistan People's Party (PPP) president Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari, arrived at the National Assembly building ahead of the oath-taking session.
Assembly will elect its prime minister on March 4
As per the schedule, President Raja Pervez Ashraf would administer oath to the newly elected legislators, followed by the election of the new president and vice president.
For the aforementioned coveted constitutional positions, aspiring candidates must submit their nomination papers by 12:00 today, with voting taking place on Friday (tomorrow).
This would be followed by the election of the prime minister, for which candidates will have to submit their nomination papers on March 3, while the election of the country's chief executive would be held next week, on March 4 (Monday).
Sources say the newly elected prime minister is likely to take oath as the country's chief executive on the same day.
Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), which is backed by PPP, Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P), Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) and others, has nominated Shehbaz Sharif as its candidate for the highest office.
While the PTI has presented Omar Ayub Khan as its candidate for the prime minister of the country.
Composition of the lower house
The National Assembly is made up of 336 members, of which 266 are elected and 70 seats are reserved for women and minorities. These reserved seats are allocated to parties based on their strength in the chamber.
Furthermore, 169 votes are needed to be elected prime minister.
In view of this, Shehbaz seems to be in pole position to secure the victory.
