ISLAMABAD: As was expected, National Assembly has elected PPP’s leader Raja Pervez Ashraf unopposed. He took oath of his office and chaired today’s remaining session of the Parliament.
PTI did not field its candidate for the slot of NA Speaker while PML(N) leader Ayaz Sadiq filed his nomination papers for the seat of NA Speaker, but he withdrew in favour of Raja Pervez Ashraf, who was elected unopposed in few minutes today.
Earlier, PTI leader Qasim Suri has resigned from the office of the National Assembly deputy speaker hours before a no-confidence motion was scheduled to be tabled against him.
In line with the NA rules, immediately after the election of the speaker, the assembly shall proceed to elect a deputy speaker and once elected, he will take oath before the assembly before entering office.
PPP leaders Khursheed Shah and Naveed Qamar had signed nomination papers as proposer and seconder for Raja Pervez Ashraf.
In a political manoeuvre, according to sources, PML-N MNA Ayaz Sadiq submitted his nomination papers for the speaker’s office and will withdraw them two minutes before the deadline of withdrawing the papers.
The NA speaker’s post fell vacant on April 9 when PTI’s Asad Qaiser resigned, stating that he can not hold voting on the no-confidence against the then-prime minister Imran Khan, which he termed, was a part of a “foreign conspiracy” against the PTI government.
