LAHORE – The voting to elect new Speaker of the Punjab Assembly ended on Friday. Sibtain Khan, a member of the former party s provincial legislature, has been jointly nominated by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) to run against Malik Saif-ul-Malook Khokhar, the candidate of the opposition.

The ruling alliance has the backing of 186 legislators, while the PML-N, the PPP, and a few independents MPS have 178.

The post of Punjab Assembly Speaker fell vacant due to the election of Chaudhry Pervez Elahi as the chief minister. The scrutiny of the nomination papers for the PA Speaker election had been completed.