Maryam Nawaz elected Chief Minister of Punjab
LAHORE: Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Maryam Nawaz Sharif has been elected as the Chief Minister of Punjab.
Newly-elected Punjab Assembly Speaker Malik Ahmad Khan conducted the polling and announced the winner. He congratulated Ms Nawaz on the historic victory and invited her to become Leader of the House in the Punjab Assembly.
Ms. Nawaz received 220 votes while her opponent Rana Aftab Ahmed Khan secured zero votes amid a boycott by the Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC).
Maryam became the first-ever female chief minister in Pakistan’s history. She is also the fourth member of the Sharif family and first woman member of her family to get elected as chief minister.
The PML-N senior vice president was elected on two seats of Lahore — NA 119 and PP-159 — later she withdrew from the National Assembly seat. In the PP-159 constituency, she contested against the PTI affiliated candidate Mehr Sharafat and won with a slim margin.
Overall, she is the sixth member of Sharif family who has been elected in a general or a by-election. Before her, Nawaz Sharif, Shehbaz Sharif, Abbas Sharif, Hamza Shehbaz and Begum Kulsoom Nawaz were elected from Lahore.
The election process for the chief minister of Punjab has concluded and the counting of votes is now underway amid a boycott by the Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC) of the polls.
The session was being presided over by newly-elected Punjab Assembly Speaker Malik Ahmad Khan when the SIC lawmakers walked out of the assembly.
At the start of the session, Speaker administered oath to two MPAs and then assured the lawmakers that he would run the House without any bias.
The speaker briefed the Assembly that after completing the scrutiny of the nomination papers stating that PML-N’s Maryam Nawaz and SIC’s Rana Aftab Ahmad Khan were the candidates vying for the chief minister’s slot. Following this, the speaker directed the secretary of the Assembly to brief the members about the voting process.
The SIC’s candidate for CM requested the speaker to address the House on a point of order but was barred from speaking. The SIC members walked out of the House which led to a delay in the start of the elections.
As the SIC MPAs walked out, the speaker formed a committee, comprising Khawaja Salman Rafique, Salman Nazeer, Samiullah and Khalil Tahir Sindhu, to convince the legislators to return to the Assembly.
The speaker also sent PPP’s Ali Haider Gilani and PML-Q’s Chaudhry Shafay Hussain to convince the SIC MPAs to return for the last time or he will move forward with the proceedings.
However, the efforts to bring back the SIC lawmakers went in vain as the lawmakers converted their walkout into a boycott of the elections. The speaker went ahead with the proceedings and began the election process.
The PML-N currently has the backing of 224 MPAs in the provincial assembly. SIC’s Rana Aftab Ahmad had the support of 103 MPAs. Aftab has served as a Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) MPA for three terms in the Punjab Assembly in 1988, 1993 and 2002. He joined the PTI in 2013 and is now serving his fourth term.