Newly elected members of the 16th National Assembly (NA) were sworn in on Thursday in a session marred by sloganeering.
Outgoing NA Speaker Raja Pervaiz Ashraf administered the oath to the MNAs-elect. The session was originally scheduled to begin at 10am but was delayed by more than an hour.
According to a spokesperson for the NA, 302 members were sworn in out of a total strength of 336. It should be noted that the Election Commission of Pakistan has not yet decided over the allocation of reserved seats to the Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC).
Notable politicians who were sworn in included PML-N supremo and former premier Nawaz Sharif, ex-prime minister Shehbaz Sharif, ex-president Asif Ali Zardari, PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari and Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazal (JUI-F) chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman.
Further, three Senate members — PML-N’s Nuzhat Sadiq, JUI-F’s Abdul Ghafoor Haideri and PPP’s Yousuf Raza Gilani — resigned from the upper house of Parliament in order to join the National Assembly.
PTI leaders, some of whom have joined the assembly under the banner of the SIC under the party’s bid to secure reserved seats, were also sworn in. These included Barrister Gohar Khan, Ali Muhammad Khan, Omar Ayub Khan and Sher Afzal Marwat.
Bd-pratidin English/Lutful Hoque
