Provincial assembly members take oath

Speaker Rahila Durrani swears in 59 legislators

QUETTA: The newly-elected 59 members of the provincial assembly took oath of their office during the first session of the 11^th Balochistan Assembly held on Monday.

The session started with recitation of Quranic verses after which speaker Rahila Hameed Khan Durrani administered oath to the new members of the provincial assembly.



After being sworn in, the newly-elected MPAs offered prayers for the martyrs of the Mastung massacre, which occurred on July 13, 2018 and the lawyers, who were martyred in the August 8, 2016 terrorist attack.

The Balochistan Awami Party (BAP) is leading with a total of 20 seats, after securing 15 general seats, four reserved seats for women and one seat for minorities.

The Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal and the Balochistan National Party-Mengal stand second in the assembly with 10 members in the house after getting seven members each elected on general seats. The parties won two reserved seats for women and one minorities seat each.



The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf secured five general seats. With the joining of an independent candidate its tally reached six. The party won one reserved seat for women, taking its final tally to seven.

The Awami National Party has four seats in the assembly - three members on general seats and one reserved seat for women.

Sardar Saleh Bhootani, who is the senior-most member, has returned to the assembly for the seventh time.

Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz’s Sanaullah Zehri did not appear during the assembly session.



In the province, the newly-emerged party - BAP - is set to form the government in coalition with the PTI.

BAP won 15 provincial seats in Balochistan during the general elections and since then, four independent candidates have joined the party, bringing their seat count in the province to 19. The count went up to 24 after the PTI, which bagged fives provincial seats, announced its support for BAP.

However, there are 65 members of the provincial assembly of which 59 MPAs have taken oath, while general election on PB-35 seat was postponed after the Mastung suicide bombing which left BAP's nominated candidate Siraj Raisani among 154 people martyred and several injured.

Later, Speaker Rahila Durrani adjourned the session till August 16. Like in other provinces, the Balochistan Assembly session also took place amid high security.