ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) on Saturday named Syed Khursheed Shah for the slot of National Assembly speaker. He will be the joint candidate of all the opposition parties.

PPP leader Mustafa Nawaz Khokhar said that party chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari had approved Mr Shah’s candidature.

Khursheed Shah served as leader of the opposition in the outgoing National Assembly.

The grand opposition alliance had decided at a multi-party conference (MPC) on Thursday to field joint candidates for the offices of prime minister, NA speaker and deputy speaker against the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) nominees Briefing reporters about the decisions taken by the MPC, PPP leader Sherry Rehman said that her party would nominate its candidate for the office of speaker, the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA) for deputy speaker and the Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N) would contest for the office of prime minister.

Sources told Dawn that PML-N president Shahbaz Sharif himself would contest against PTI chairman Imran Khan for the PM’s office.

Published in Dawn, August 5th, 2018