First NA session marred by ruckus

Amid rigging allegations and uncertainty surrounding the political dispensation, the process of formation of the new federal government kicked off on Thursday when 302 out of the 336 newly elected lawmakers were sworn in at the inaugural session of the 16th National Assembly.

The maiden session witnessed the return of two major players of the political chessboard in parliament: PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif -- who re-entered the assembly hall after a gap of seven years -- and PTI lawmakers entering the NA under the banner of the Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC) after they had abandoned the lower house by resigning en masse in April 2022.

Though PTI founding chairman and former premier Imran Khan is in jail, his party’s lawmakers winning in the general elections made his presence felt by chanting slogans in his favour and wearing his lookalike face masks.

Amid the ruckus, an Imran-lookalike mask was also thrown at Nawaz, when he was signing on the Roll of Members after being sworn in.

Perhaps, the SIC lawmakers took the inspiration from Netflix’s blockbuster Spanish crime series ‘Money Heist’, which featured lead characters wearing face masks designed by Spanish artist Salvador Dali.

The only other uncanny resemblance and uniqueness between Dali and Imran is that they are unapologetically themselves, even when they are wrong.

Although, the maiden session was marred by ruckus and slogans in favour of Imran and Nawaz, outgoing NA Speaker Raja Pervez Ashraf announced that the elections for his successor and their deputy would take place on Friday (today).

PML-N’s Sardar Ayaz Sadiq and PTI-backed Amir Dogar submitted their nomination papers for the post of the speaker to the NA Secretariat.

Similarly, PPP’s Syed Ghulam Mustafa Shah and PTI-SIC’s Junaid Akbar submitted their papers for the post of the deputy speaker to the secretariat.

Later, the assembly secretariat announced that the election for the slot of prime minister will take place on March 3 (Sunday), ending the guessing game as to when the country would have a new premier.

Earlier, it was expected that the election for the post of the PM might take place coming Monday.

Soon after the election, the premier will go to the Presidency to take oath of his office and then take charge of the PM Office.

Ironically, it seemed the PTI-SIC lawmakers started off the new parliamentary year where they had left it in April 2022: the slogan of “Chor (thieves), Corrupt and Ghaddar (traitors)”.

The PTI lawmakers had resigned en masse in April 2022 after Imran was ousted from the post of the premier through a vote of no confidence and minutes before PML-N President Shehbaz Sharif replaced him.

Once again, as the irony would have it, Shehbaz is set to become the next premier.

From the start till the end, the assembly hall kept echoing with slogans of “Dekho Dekho Kaun Aaya, Sher Aaya Sher Aaya (look who has come, the tiger has come)” and “Kaun Bachaye Ga Pakistan, Imran Khan Imran Khan (who will save Pakistan, Imran Khan Imran Khan)”.

At times, it was difficult to distinguish who was responding to which slogan line and it felt like Nawaz and Imran were both the ‘tiger’ and the ‘saviour’.

The SIC lawmakers also chanted the slogan of “Prisoner No 804” -- the number allotted to Imran after he was convicted in the Toshakhana (gift repository) case and sent to jail.

Nevertheless, the PTI under the guise of the SIC has returned to parliament.

There is an unspoken ban on mentioning Imran’s name and displaying his photo or video. However, this was the first time that the PTI received the chance to mention his name and show his photos on television screens – perhaps a small reward for returning to parliament.

Dogar, who served as the PTI’s chief whip in the previous stint, not just signed on the register for lawmakers’ attendance on the Roll of Members in connection with Rule No 7 of the Rules and Procedure of National Assembly, 2007, but also chanted slogans in favour of Imran and his party while standing near the NA speaker’s podium.

As the session began, the lawmakers on both sides of the aisle appeared to be fully charged as they shouted slogans against each other.

The PTI lawmakers, sitting on the opposition benches, came prepared and almost all of them had brought Imran’s posters with them.

The lawmakers, sitting on the treasury benches, were seen short of posters or placards of Nawaz and other party leaders and had no other option but to keep chanting slogans as hard as they could.

As the bigwigs left the assembly hall, the members were busy signing the register and completing the formalities. A member, who arrived late, was sworn in separately.

Apart from Nawaz, the maiden session witnessed the presence of prime minister in-waiting Shehbaz, Punjab CM Maryam Nawaz, Ishaq Dar, PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, and JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman among others.

Barrister Gohar Ali Khan, Omar Ayub, Sardar Latif Khosa, Sher Afzal Marwat, Shandana Gulzar, Shehryar Afridi and other PTI leaders, who have now merged with the SIC, were also in attendance.

The NA speaker administered the oath to the newly elected members.

After the oath was administered, the lawmakers signed on the register marking the lawmakers’ attendance on the Role of Members as per Rule No 7 of the Rules and Procedure of National Assembly, 2007.

The Rule 7 reads: “There shall be a Roll of Members which shall be signed by every member after making the oath.”

During the session, the PTI-SIC’s candidate for premiership, Omar Ayub, said the house was incomplete, adding that even the people nominated for the reserved seats could not arrive to take oath during the inaugural session.

In response to Ayub and Gohar’s arguments that the SIC was deprived of the reserved seats, PML-N’s Khawaja Asif said the SIC had not even submitted its list for the reserved seats to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) before the polls. He asked how could the SIC be granted the reserved seats then.

Seeing the unruly behaviour of the lawmakers from both sides of the aisle, the speaker adjourned the session till 10am on Friday.

On Friday, as per the agenda issued by the NA Secretariat, oath will be administered to those who could not take it on Thursday.

After that, the election for the new NA speaker will be held.

Subsequently, the new speaker will take oath and the election for the deputy speaker will be conducted, followed by their swearing-in.