PTI candidates elected speaker, deputy speaker of AJK LA

Six women also administered oath by Speaker Qadir

MUZAFFARABAD:

The newly elected members of the Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) Legislative Assembly on Tuesday took oath of their new duties with PTI candidate Anwarul Haq elected as speaker and Riaz Gujjar deputy speaker.

Speaker Shah Ghulam Qadir administered the oath to the newly elected members. Among those who took the oath were six women.

Sardar Atiq Ahmad Khan of the Muslim Conference and Javed Iqbal Badhanivi of the Pakistan Peoples Party could not take the oath.

In the meeting, PTI's Chaudhry Anwarul Haq got 32 votes and was elected speaker. Opposition candidate Faisal Mumtaz Rathore got 15 votes.

A total of 49 members took part in the voting, out of which two votes were rejected.

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Later, when the voting for deputy speaker’s slot took place, PTI candidate Gujjar secured the seat with 32 votes. Opposition candidate Nisar Abbasi got 15 votes.

On Monday, the PTI clinched all three reserved seats – one each for Ulema and Mushaikh, overseas Kashmiris and technocrats – to raise its strength in the 53-member house to 32. There were nine candidates from the three parties – PTI, PPP and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) – vying for the reserved seats.

On August 1, the PPP and the PML-N agreed to field joint candidates for the slots of AJK prime minister, speaker and deputy speaker. The two opposition parties have been in touch for parliamentary cooperation in the assembly.

Sources said the two parties would cooperate for reserved seats. The PML-N and the PPP each secured a seat reserved for women. The sources added that there is a high probability that the seat of leader of the opposition would be bagged by the PPP.

PPP AJK President Chaudhry Latif Akbar said it was decided in a meeting with a PML-N leader and former prime minister Raja Farooq Haider that the two parties would cooperate with each other.

“The PPP and the PML-N will work under a joint strategy,” he added.

Prime Minister Imran Khan’s party emerged as the single-largest party after clinching 26 general seats in the July 25 elections. The PPP came in second with 11 seats while the PML-N bagged six seats.