Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s Asad Qaisar and Imtiaz Shahid Qureshi were on Thursday unanimously, and unopposed, elected the speaker and deputy speaker of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly, respectively.
Both the newly elected speaker and deputy speaker were administered oath and assumed charge of office. Outgoing speaker Karamatullah Khan Chagharmati administered the oath to Asad Qaisar.
The unopposed election of both speaker and deputy speaker became possible when outgoing speaker Karamatullah Khan suggested mediation between opposition and treasury benches for electing the two officials. After taking the august house into confidence, Karamatullah has announced adjourning of the session and invited parliamentary leaders from all parties into his chamber.
After hectic dialogue and argument, the opposition parties agreed to give a walk-over to the PTI, which emerged as the majority political force in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly after the May 11 polls. In this respect, leaders of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl and Pakistan Muslim League-N also took their seniors into confidence.
At the very outset of discussion in the speaker’s chamber, PML-N leaders said they were willing to give PTI a walkover, but in return, they must go for a similar exercise in the National Assembly.
The JUI-F parliamentary leader Maulana Lutafur Rahman was reluctant to give a free hand to the PTI candidates, saying, “We do not recognise PTI’s mandate.” However, after hectic efforts of three hours, the parliamentary leaders of all parties agreed to go ahead with previous traditions and gave a free hand to the PTI in election of speaker and deputy speaker.
Upon resuming proceeding of the House, Karamatullah congratulated the leaders and members from all political forces for the reconciliation.
He called it a good omen not only for Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, but for the rest of the country as well.
On completion of election of the speaker and deputy speaker, a number of MPs, including PML-N’s Sardar Mehtab Abbasi, ANP’s Sardar Hussain Babak, PPP’s Syed Mohammad Ali Shah and Neghat Aurakzai, Jamaat Isami’s Sirajul Haq, PTI’s Shaukat Ali Yousafzai, JUI-F’s Maulana Lutafur Rahman and Uzma Khan and others congratulated Asad Qaisar and Imtiaz Shahid Qureshi on their election.
Sardar Hussain Babak of ANP told Qaiser, “Now you have to decide about party office as office of the speaker is very sensitive and the speaker has to be impartial.” Qaisar is the provincial president of the PTI.
Chief minister-designate Pervez Khattak and newly-elected Speaker Asad Qaisar thanked the House, particularly the opposition, for helping PTI in the election of speaker and deputy speaker.
They assured the opposition of respect both in and outside the assembly.