By Staff Reporter
ISLAMABAD: The lower house of parliament will choose a new prime minister on Sunday, the assembly’s secretariat said on Thursday, after a tumultuous first session that was marred by protests from supporters of the former prime minister Imran Khan, who is in jail on corruption charges.
The secretariat said lawmakers could submit their nominations for the prime minister’s post by 2 pm on Saturday, and that the candidates would be scrutinised starting from 3 pm that day.
“The prime minister will be elected on Sunday, March 3, 2024,” the secretariat said in a statement.
The election comes after a disputed national vote on Feb. 8 that was followed by allegations of rigging and fraud, sparking nationwide demonstrations by several political parties, most notably Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party, which won the most seats in the National Assembly, the lower house, despite a crackdown by the authorities against the party and the arrests of its leaders before the polls.
The fractured mandate in parliament led to a deal between the Pakistan People’s Party of Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, the son of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, and the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) of Nawaz Sharif, another former prime minister, to form a coalition government on Feb. 20, ending days of uncertainty and negotiations.
The PML-N, which has 79 seats, and the PPP, which has 54, have a simple majority in the 336-member assembly, and they have also brought in smaller parties to their alliance. Candidates backed by Khan’s PTI won 93 seats, but they do not have enough support to form a government.
The inaugural session of the assembly on Thursday was chaotic, as soon as the national anthem ended, lawmakers loyal to Khan, who have joined a religious group the Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC), surrounded the speaker’s podium.
“Who will save Pakistan? Imran Khan, Imran Khan!” they chanted, holding placards that read, “Release Imran Khan,” and wearing masks with his face on them. Some also carried his portraits.
Not all members of the assembly took the oath on Thursday, as the allocation of 70 reserved seats for women and minorities was still pending a decision by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP).
The commission will determine whether the SIC, which did not win any seats in the election but was later joined by Khan’s successful supporters, who ran as independents, can claim any of the reserved seats. The ECP completed hearings on the issue on Wednesday but has not announced a verdict.
Other major parties, including the PPP and the PML-N, have opposed the S.I.C.’s claim, saying it was not a parliamentary party and could not demand seats.
Speaking in the assembly, a PTI lawmaker, Barrister Gohar Khan, said the parliament was “incomplete” without his party’s share of reserved seats.
“You become the elected member when you enjoy trust of the public, and trust of the people is earned,” he said, accusing the authorities of rigging the election and depriving the PTI of its mandate. He said his party had actually won 180 seats in the assembly.
Gohar Khan said the PTI-SIC alliance deserved 20 seats for women and three for minorities out of the 70 reserved seats.
The assembly will elect the speaker and deputy speaker on Friday.
The coalition alliance has nominated Shehbaz Sharif, the brother of Nawaz Sharif and a former prime minister himself, as its candidate for the prime minister’s slot. Younger Sharif replaced Khan as prime minister in 2022, after he was ousted in a no-confidence vote in parliament. Since then, Khan has been convicted of several offenses in what his supporters call politically motivated cases to keep him out of power.
The coalition alliance is also backing Asif Ali Zardari, the former president and the co-chairman of the PPP, as its joint candidate for president, when the new parliament and the four provincial legislatures elect the successor of the outgoing President Arif Alvi later next month.
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