LAHORE: The provincial assemblies of Punjab and Sindh will elect leaders of house (chief ministers) on Monday (today) while there are chances of hue and cry from the opposition.
In the Punjab, Muslim League-Nawaz’s (PML-N) Maryam Nawaz and Sunni Ittehad Council’s (SIC) Rana Aftab Khan will fight for the coveted office.
The Sindh Assembly will elect Syed Murad Ali Shah of the People’s Party (PPP) or Ali Khursheedi of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P). The Jammat-e-Islami and the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf have announced to boycott the election.
Maryam, the daughter of three-time former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, will likely create history as the first woman chief minister of the Punjab.
The SIC had nominated Mian Aslam Iqbal, an MPA-elect from Lahore, for the office but later replaced him with Rana Aftab from Faisalabad, a former member of the PPP.
The SIC had to replace Mian Aslam as he did not come to the house to take oath as MPA, fearing his arrest by the Punjab police.
The nomination papers of Maryam and Rana Aftab for the post of Punjab chief minister have been accepted.
Meanwhile, the swearing-in ceremony of the newly-elected Punjab chief minister will be held on Monday at 2pm at the Governor’s House.
The invitations in this regard have been distributed to the provincial assembly members. The MPAs have been instructed not to bring guests along with them.
The Sindh Assembly will elect a new chief minister at 2 pm, according to the schedule announced by newly-elected speaker Owais Qadir Shah.
Former chief minister Murad Ali Shah was nominated for the position by the PPP. Ghulam Qadir Chandio, Saleh Shah and Naeem Kharal submitted the nomination papers on behalf of Murad Ali Shah.
On the other hand, the MQM-P’s candidate Khurshidi, 38, has been elected to the Sindh Assembly from Orangi Town for the second consecutive time. A graduate of the Sir Syed University of Engineering and Technology, he was elevated to the slot of party’s parliamentary leader during the last term.
Meanwhile, in a statement, the PTI claimed that the PPP contacted its members seeking their support but it had decided to boycott the process. “We would boycott the election of CM Sindh,” said the PTI Sindh chapter president, Haleem Adil Sheikh.
“We don’t want to validate those who have become part of the legislative assembly after stealing the mandate of the people of Sindh. We would resist and take every step to regain our mandate through legal and democratic fight.”
When contacted, a spokesman for the JI, which has one MPA in the assembly, also announced boycott of the process.
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