| Electoral process to begin at 2pm | PTI nominates Qureshi, joint opposition names Shehbaz to run for the slot of PM
Staff Report
ISLAMABAD: Following the dismissal of Imran Khan as prime minister after he lost a no-confidence vote in Parliament, the National Assembly (NA) session to elect the new premier will be held today (Monday) at 2pm. The session was earlier supposed to start at 11am on Monday.
According to the NA secretariat, the aspirant candidates were allowed to file their nomination papers for the top slot till 2pm Sunday. According to the new schedule, the election for the new prime minister will take place at 2pm on Monday.
The announcement for NA Session comes shortly after, PTI Vice Chairman Shah Mahmood Qureshi submitted four forms with the NA Secretariat, while PML-N President Shehbaz Sharif, the joint opposition’s candidate for the post, filed 13 forms.
During the submission of the nomination papers, the PTI raised objections to Shehbaz’s nomination and subsequently a heated exchange of words took place between PTI’s Qureshi and PML-N leader Ahsan Iqbal.
Awan said the PML-N president had cases pending against him and called for his papers to be rejected. The PTI’s objections were eventually rejected and the nomination papers for both wcandidates were accepted.
Earlier in the day, PTI’s Kanwal Shauzab and Zain Qureshi arrived at Parliament House to collect nomination papers on Qureshi’s behalf. Speaking to the media, Shauzab said that the papers would be submitted after consulting with the party’s core committee.
The NA Secretariat had initially announced that 2pm would be the deadline for submitting the nomination papers for the election of the prime minister and the leader of the house while the scrutiny process would begin at 3pm.
Earlier, the secretariat had issued a statement delaying the timing but later took it back after the opposition opposed it. According to the secretariat, the PTI had requested to delay the timings.
Opposition parties in the National Assembly on Sunday defeated the PTI
government in the no-confidence resolution they jointly moved against Prime Minister Imran Khan with 174 votes, setting a new precedent in parliamentary history of the country for in-house change through a democratic and constitutional manner.
In the 341-seat House
(excluding a seat that fell vacant due to demise of MNA Khayal Zaman Orakzai), the unified opposition secured 174 votes after Member of Panel of Chairpersons Ayaz Sadiq asked for the simple division in favour and against the resolution for physical-count of the members.
The resolution, carrying names of 152 movers, was presented by Leader of the Opposition Shehbaz Sharif on March 28 under Article 95(1) of the Constitution, read with rule 37 of the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in the National Assembly, 2007 that stated “This House is of the view that the Prime Minister of Pakistan, Mr. Imran Khan, has lost the confidence of the majority of the members of the National Assembly of Pakistan, therefore he should cease to hold office.”
Since the opposition parties submitted the no-trust move with the National Assembly Secretariat on March 8, the opposition parties had been claiming a majority to defeat the government on this front, which they practically demonstrated Sunday 12am.
It is the first-ever succeeding no-confidence motion in parliamentary history of Pakistan through which a sitting prime minister has been removed as in the past two such moves had failed.
