Voting for the office of the Speaker of the National Assembly (NA) is underway with the contest between Pakistan Muslim Leahue Nawaz’s (PMLN) Sardar Ayaz Sadiq and the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s (PTI) Shafqat Mahmood.
Ahead of voting, Acting Speaker Murtaza Javed Abbasi announced that the assembly had initially received three nominations, but Member National Assembly (MNA) Ghazi Ghulab Jamal withdrew his candidature leaving the competition between PML-N’s Sardar Ayaz Sadiq and PTI’s Shafqat Mahmood.
The election process started at 9am. The first vote was cast by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. PTI Chairman Imran Khan also arrived at the National Assembly to cast his vote.
Ayaz Sadiq’s election from NA122 was declared void by the election tribunal on the request of the PTI chairman on the 21st of August this year, however Sadiq was reelected from the same constituency in the by-election.
