LAHORE: Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Maryam Nawaz on Sunday was elected as Punjab’s chief minister amid a boycott by the Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC) of the polls.
Maryam, who has become the first-ever female chief minister in Pakistan’s history, won the elections after receiving the backing of 220 MPAs in the provincial assembly.
Her opponent, Sunni Ittehad Council’s (SIC) candidate Rana Aftab Aftab Ahmad, did not get any votes as the party boycotted the elections after they were stopped from speaking.
“The votes have been counted according to which Maryam has obtained 220 votes and SIC candidate Rana Aftab Aftab secured zero votes,” said Speaker Malik Ahmad Khan while presiding the session.
After announcing the result, the speaker invited CM-elect Maryam Nawaz to come to the seat of the leader of the House.
Fourth Sharif family member to rule Punjab
Apart from becoming the first female chief minister in the country, Maryam has also become the fourth member of the Sharif family and first woman member of her family to get elected as CM.
The PML-N senior vice president was elected on two seats in Lahore — NA 119 and PP-159 — during the February 8 general elections. Post-elections she she withdrew from the National Assembly seat.
In the PP-159 constituency, she contested against PTI-backed independent candidate Mehr Sharafat and won with a slim margin.
Overall, she is the sixth member of Sharif family who has been elected in a general or a by-election.
Before her, Nawaz Sharif, Shehbaz Sharif, Abbas Sharif, Hamza Shehbaz and Begum Kalsoom Nawaz were elected from Lahore.
SIC boycott
The session, which began with over a 30-minute delay, was being presided over by newly-elected Punjab Assembly Speaker Malik Ahmad Khan.
At the start of the session, Speaker Khan administered oath to two MPAs and then assured the lawmakers that he would run the House without any bias.
The speaker then briefed the Assembly that after completing the scrutiny of the nomination papers, PML-N’s Maryam Nawaz and SIC’s Rana Aftab Ahmad Khan had emerged as the candidates vying for the chief minister’s slot.
Following this, the speaker directed the secretary of the Assembly to brief the members about the voting process.
Once this was done, the SIC’s candidate for CM requested the speaker to address the House on a point of order but was barred from speaking.
“In today’s session, only elections will be held for the chief minster. You cannot speak in today’s session,” Speaker Khan told the SIC candidate as he tried to speak up.
After being barred from speaking, the members of the SIC walked out of the House which led to a delay in the start of the elections.
As the SIC MPAs walked out, the speaker formed a committee, comprising Khawaja Salman Rafique, Salman Nazeer, Samiullah and Khalil Tahir Sindhu, to convince the legislators to return to the Assembly.
The speaker then also sent PPP’s Ali Haider Gilani and PML-Q’s Chaudhry Shafay Hussain to convince the SIC MPAs to return for last time.
While sending them the speaker warned that if the lawmakers do not return then he would move forward with the proceedings.
However, the efforts went in vain and the speaker then went ahead with the proceedings and began the process of electing a new leader of the House.
Each member that cast their vote was sent to the lobby and remained there till the completion of the voting process.
Once the counting of votes was done the members were invited back to the Assembly for the announcement of the results.
