Second term: Rana Iqbal handed speaker’s gavel again

Gorchani voted as deputy speaker of Punjab Assembly; PPP abstains from voting.

LAHORE:

For the second consecutive time, Rana Muhammad Iqbal of Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) earned the right to a speaker’s gavel after members of the Punjab Assembly gave him a majority vote.

The party’s nominee for deputy speaker, Sher Ali Gorchani, also sailed through the election process in a house dominated by his party. Gorchani, who represents southern Punjab, will make his debut as deputy speaker.

The Punjab Assembly session was presided over by former deputy speaker Rana Mashhood Ahmed Khan, under whose leadership a panel held the election for the new speaker. A total of 332 votes were cast by the newly elected members of the Punjab Assembly. Iqbal bagged a whopping 297 votes against his opponent Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI)’s Raja Rashid, who secured only 35 votes.

Following the election, Rana Mashhood administered oath to Iqbal, who later presided over the first session of the new assembly and conducted the election for deputy speaker of the house.

PML-N’s nominee Sher Ali Gorchani bagged 293 votes out of a total of 330 votes cast. His rival, PML-Q’s Waqas Moakkal could secure only 37 votes. After announcing Gorchani as the winner, Speaker Rana Iqbal administered the oath to him.

Six MPAs of Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) abstained from voting in the house. As a result, a dejected Moonis Elahi, PML-Q’s parliamentary leader in the provincial assembly, voiced his disappointment at the attitude of the PPP. Talking to the media, Elahi said that the PPP’s Syed Khurshid Shah had backed out of their stance by not voting for the PML-Q nominee after he sought support from their party in the centre.

The PML-N’s nominated leader of the house, Shahbaz Sharif left the assembly a few seconds after casting his vote for speaker. Shahbaz is likely to be elected chief minister for the province on June 6.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 4^th, 2013.