The National Assembly convenes today (Tuesday) to elect a new leader of the house after the Supreme Court deposed prime minister Nawaz Sharif and disqualified him from holding a public office for hiding assets in his nomination papers for the 2013 general elections.
The parliamentary party of PML-N named Sharif’s younger brother, Shahbaz Sharif, as his successor over the weekend, but he must first enter parliament by contesting the seat left vacant by Sharif.
In the meantime the ruling party, which enjoys a majority in parliament, has nominated Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, the petroleum minister in Sharif’s cabinet, as interim prime minister.
Abbasi is set to be rubber-stamped as placeholder in the parliamentary vote. The opposition could also field a candidate but has little chance of securing enough votes in the 342-seat house. Moreover, the opposition house is divided as they could not agree on fielding a joint candidate to challenge Abbasi.
Abbasi filed his nomination papers on Monday. He was accompanied by his former cabinet colleagues Khawaja Asif, Abdul Qadir Baloch, Sardar Muhammad Yousaf, Sheikh Aftab, Saira Afzal Tarar, Tariq Fazal Chaudhry as well as PML-Zia leader Ejazul Haq.
Khursheed Shah and Naveed Qamar of the largest opposition group, the PPP, submitted their nomination papers. Sheikh Rashid, the PTI candidate, Sahibzada Tariqullah of Jamaat-e-Islami and Kishwar Zahra of the MQM, also filed their nominations. National Assembly Speaker Ayaz Sadiq will scrutinise the nominations.
Abbasi told journalists that he would take forward the development agenda of his party. “The country is faced with myriad challenges and our efforts will be aimed at steering the country out of them,” he said.
Earlier in a meeting chaired by the leader of opposition in the National Assembly, Khursheed Shah, opposition parties tried to develop consensus on a candidate. However, the session remained inconclusive as the opposition parties failed to agree on a single name to represent all of them against Abbasi.
Later, Shah said Shah Mahmood Qureshi of the PTI had agreed with him to announce a candidate in consultation with the PPP, a thing which, Shah said, did not happen. The PPP is of the view that the PTI announced its candidate unilaterally to the chagrin of the largest opposition party in the lower house of parliament.
Talking to The Express Tribune, Sahibzada Tariqullah – whose party is PTI’s coalition partner in Khyber-Pakhtunkwa – also confirmed that it would not support the PTI’s candidate and would field its own candidate for the coveted slot.
Muzammil Qureshi – an MNA from the MQM – said although his party had fielded its separate candidate for the post of the premier but still its doors were open ‘to support someone else in the process’.
The Awami National Party (ANP) has decided to abstain from the election process on account of the opposition’s lack of consensus. The JUI-F has decided to support the PML-N’s candidate.
Nawaz wants his brother, Shehbaz, to step into his shoes
However, even if all the opposition parties had managed to join hands, they could not give a tough time to the ruling party which has a total of 188 lawmakers in the 342-member house. Out of PML-N’s 188 members, 147 had been elected on general seats, 35 on reserved seats for women and six on reserved seats for minorities.
The PPP has a total of 47 MNAs out of which 38 had been elected on general seats, six on reserved seats for women and one on reserved seat for minority. The PTI has a total strength of 33 members, 26 of whom had been elected on general seats, six on women’s seats and one on reserved seat for minorities.
The fourth biggest party in parliament, the MQM, has 24 seats out of which 19 are general seats, four are reserved seats for women and one is for minority. The JI has got a total of four seats, three of which are general and one is reserved for women.