LAHORE (DNA) – Election for Speaker and Deputy Speaker of Punjab and Balochistan Assemblies will be held today (Thursday) in Lahore.

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) has nominated Chaudhry Parvez Elahi as the coalition’s candidate for post of Speaker Punjab Assembly and Dost Muhammad Mazari as Deputy Speaker.

Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) has fielded Chaudhry Iqbal Gujjar for post of Speaker and Muhammad Waaris Kallu for Deputy Speaker.

At least 358 newly-elected members of 17th Punjab Assembly were administered oath on Wednesday by outgoing speaker Rana Muhammad Iqbal.

Pakistan Peoples’ Party (PPP) has decided to stay away from the election. Sources told that PPP will neither vote for PTI candidate nor for PML-N’s.

On the other hand, the newly-elected members of Balochistan Assembly will also go into secret balloting for selection of speaker and deputy speaker.
The session of the Balochistan Assembly is scheduled to begin at 03:00PM today.

Balochistan Awami Party (BAP) has nominated Abdul Quddus Bizenjo for the slot of speaker while Sardar Babar Musakhel of PTI will be the joint candidate of the alliance for the job of deputy speaker.

The nomination papers for the aforementioned slots can be submitted till 11:00AM today.

On August 13, 60 out of the 65 newly-elected members took oath as MPAs which was administered by outgoing Speaker Raheela Hameed Khan Durrani.