ISLAMABAD: The National Assembly is set to witness a one-to-one contest for the posts of its speaker and deputy speaker on Wednesday as four candidates backed by the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) and a fragile opposition alliance submitted their papers on Tuesday.

Former speaker of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly Asad Qaiser and Qasim Suri of the PTI submitted their nomination papers to the National Assembly secretary to contest against Syed Khursheed Shah of the Pakistan Peoples Party and Asad Rehman of the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA), the joint candidates of the opposition parties for the offices of speaker and deputy speaker, respectively.

Tuesday noon was the deadline, announced by outgoing Speaker Ayaz Sadiq for submission of nomination papers for the two posts at the conclusion of the inaugural session of the lower house of parliament on Monday.

After submission of the papers, a PTI delegation led by Asad Qaiser met the members of the Sindh-based Grand Democratic Alliance (GDA) to formally seek their cooperation and votes in the crucial elections to be held through secret ballot.

Khursheed Shah confirms PPP has conveyed to PML-N reservations over Shahbaz’s nomination as PM, but says ‘it’s a trivial matter’

Talking to reporters after the meeting held at the Parliament Lodges, GDA’s Dr Fehmida Mirza annou­nced that they would support the PTI candidates for the offices of speaker and deputy speaker, while appreciating the PTI for nominating the candidates from smaller provinces.

Speaking on the occasion, Asad Qaiser vowed to work for the supremacy of parliament, saying that he would strive to run the house as per the rules and laws and would take the opposition parties along.

PTI’s information secretary Fawad Chaudhry claims that their candidates would easily manage to secure nearly 180 votes with the support of party allies in the Wednesday’s polls.

Mr Chaudhry seems to be confident perhaps because of the reports of an internal rift emerging in the 11-party opposition alliance over the decision of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) to nominate its president Shahbaz Sharif as the candidate for office of the prime minister against PTI chairman Imran Khan.

While agreeing to field joint candidates for the top parliamentary offices, the opposition alliance during a multi-party conference had finalised a formula under which the PPP and the MMA were to nominate candidates for the offices of speaker and deputy speaker, respectively, whereas the PML-N had been asked to nominate a candidate for the prime minister’s office. The PML-N later nominated Shahbaz Sharif for the position.

However, the PPP had “serious reservations” over Mr Sharif’s nomination due to his past controversial statements against their leadership and the party had told the PML-N that it wanted a different man as a candidate.

Talking to Dawn, Syed Khursheed Shah confirmed that the PPP had conveyed its reservations to the PML-N over Mr Sharif’s nomination but, what appears to be a political tactic, he tried to downplay the matter, terming it a “trivial matter”.

Mr Shah said the PPP was in contact with the PML-N and the matter would be resolved amicably. He expressed the hope that the PML-N members would vote for him in the speaker’s election.

The PPP leader, however, did not give a specific response to the question about his party’s strategy if the PML-N continued to stick to its decision of nominating Mr Sharif for the office of the leader of the house and simply said: “This is not a big issue.”

Keeping in view the party position, apparently it seems that the PTI has acquired the support of the required members for the elections of the speaker, deputy speaker as well as the prime minister in the 342-member National Assembly with the support of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), all the 13 independents who won the last general elections and other smaller groups.

The NA has a total of 342 seats, including 272 general seats, 60 reserved for women and 10 for minorities. As polls in Rawalpindi (NA-60) had been postponed following the disqualification of PML-N leader Hanif Abbasi and elections in Faisalabad (NA-103) had been put off after the death of a candidate, the elections were held in 270 NA constituencies on July 25.

The results of only 339 NA constituencies, including the reserved seats, have so far been announced while the notification of PPP candidate Fida Dero’s victory from NA-215 (Sanghar), which had been withheld by the Election Commission of Pakistan, had not been issued till Monday evening despite the apex court order.

As many as 326 members had taken oath on Monday as Mehboob Sultan and Amir Sultan, the two brothers and PTI MNAs from Jhang, had not turned up at the inaugural session due to the demise of their mother. They are also expected to take oath before the start of the election of the speaker, who will then supervise the election of the deputy speaker.

The PTI now has 152 members in the National Assembly after Imran Khan, Ghulam Sarwar Khan and Tahir Sadiq vacated the additional seats. PML-Q leader Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi, who had won two NA seats, has also opted for the Punjab Assembly seat. PML-N’s Hamza Shahbaz has also retained his Punjab Assembly seat and did not take the oath as MNA on Monday.

The parties which have either already announced their support to the PTI or are expected to vote for its nominees are the MQM with seven seats; PML-Q and BAP with three seats each; BNP (four seats); GDA (three); and Awami Muslim League and Jamhoori Watan Party (with one seat each). Besides them, nine independents have joined the PTI. Four independents, who have decided to maintain their independent status, are also expected to vote for the PTI. So the PTI nominees should get 180 votes in all the elections against 150 votes of the candidates of the joint opposition.

The PML-N with 82 seats is the largest party in the opposition group, followed by PPP (53 seats); MMA (15 seats) and ANP (one seat).

Published in Dawn, August 15th, 2018