LAHORE – Wasiq Qayyum Abbasi, the joint candidate of PTI and PML-Q, waselected Speaker of the Punjab Assembly unopposed after the oppositionparties boycotted the election.
The development comes a day after Dost Muhammad Mazari was voted out fromhis office as deputy speaker at the Punjab Assembly on Friday.
Reports in local media said Wasiq Abbasi’s rival and PPP lawmaker AliHaider Gilani refused to submit his nomination papers. The Assemblysecretary told a publication that officials waited for the opposition’scandidate after 5 pm but he did not show up.
Wasiq, after bagging the seat, told the media that the opposition is fullyaware of their defeat and that is why they preferred not to submitnomination papers avoiding further humiliation.
Wasiq Abbasi got the seat a day after PTI’s Sibtain Khan had stoodvictorious with 185 votes of the total 364, while PML-N’s Khokar, managedto secure 175.
Read Top Stories
PML-N leader Saiful Malook Khokar said his party boycotted the elections inwake of Gujrat’s hooliganism. Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz candidate forPunjab Assembly speaker has moved Lahore High Court, claiming that theelection was held in an ‘illegal and unconstitutional manner’.
Opposition leaders maintained that the contest on the speaker’s slot was a’sheer violation’ of Article 226, adding that all elections under theConstitution, other than those of the Prime Minister and the ChiefMinister, shall be by secret ballot.
