ISLAMABAD: The election for new Speaker of the National Assembly will be held tomorrow (Monday). For this purpose, the Assembly session has been convened tomorrow morning at nine.
Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) candidate for the Speakership Sardar Ayaz Sadiq filed his nomination papers with the Secretary, National Assembly Secretariat in Islamabad today (Sunday). Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) candidate Shafqat Mahmood and Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) candidate Dr. G. G. Jamal have also submitted their nomination papers in this regard tillt he filing time of 12 noon on Sunday..
A member who has been nominated can withdraw his candidature any time before the National Assembly proceeds to elect the Speaker.
Speaking to the press outside the NA, Sadiq, expressed gratitude at being nominated for the post by party leader and Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. He said he had made the hattrick by defeating Imran Khan in 2002 and 2013 and again defeated PTI’s Aleem Khan in the bye elections.
He said except, PTI all the political parties have supported him. Sadiq also expressed gratitude to all parliamentary parties that had announced their support and intention to vote for him. He named Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman, PML-Q's Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi, Awami National Party's (ANP) Ghulam Ahmed Bilour and PML-Z's Ijazul Haq, among others.
He also spoke of support from the PML-F, MQM and Jamaat-i-Islami.
He said that if he regained the position of Speaker, he would remain unbiased and fulfil the demands of the role better than he had during his past tenure as Speaker.
"Whether someone votes for me or not, I will not consider them a separate group," he said.
"What Shah Mehmood Qureshi said was inappropriate," he said, responding to a question regarding the PTI leader's call for Speaker elections to be held before Sadiq was sworn in as MNA.
"If a party member wins an election and comes to the House, he is a stranger in the House until he takes oath. You are aware of why he objected to Speaker elections," he said. "I wasn't even nominated for Speaker then. He didn't want me to take oath and become Speaker," he claimed.
The PTI has nominated Shafqat Mahmood as its candidate for the post. He filed his nomination papers on Friday. Syed Ghazi Ghulab Jamal from Fata is also in the running for the Speaker slot.
INP/AH