One-sided contest? Ayaz Sadiq all set to don speaker’s robe again

All opposition parties support PML-N nominee against PTI’s Shafqat Mahmood

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz nominee Sardar Ayaz Sadiq is all set to be re-elected to the coveted office he had to relinquish after an election tribunal had nullified his election from NA-122 (Lahore V) on August 22. All but one opposition party have thrown their weight behind Sadiq for the election of National Assembly speaker scheduled for Monday (today).

The lower house of parliament will hold a rare session to elect its custodian. The election process will start at 9am – and the results will be announced by acting speaker Murtaza Javed Abbasi. It is rare for the assembly to elect a speaker midway through its five-year term and even rarer to see the same person reentering the coveted office again. Although the Imran Khan-led Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf has nominated its lawmaker, Shafqat Mahmood, for the contest, Sadiq is likely to have a walkover as almost all opposition parties have announced support for him. Having been unseated by the election tribunal, Sadiq contested a by-election last month to reclaim his lost seat in the National Assembly.



On Saturday, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif nominated Sadiq as PML-N’s choice for the speaker’s slot during a meeting at the premier’s Jati Umrah residence in Raiwind. After getting the approval, Sadiq submitted his nomination papers in the National Assembly Secretariat.

While talking to journalists, he thanked all the parliamentary parties that have announced their support to him, including PPP, MQM, JUI-F, PML-Q, ANP, PML-Z, PML-F, and Jamaat-e-Islami.

Sadiq promised that he would remain unbiased after becoming the custodian of the house and perform even better than his previous incomplete term as the speaker. “Whether someone votes for me or not, I will not consider them a separate group,” he said.

In reply to a question about Shah Mahmood Qureshi’s demand for holding elections last week, Sadiq termed the PTI leader’s action inappropriate.

Qureshi had demanded that as per rules, election for speaker should be held first before the house took up the routine agenda. Sadiq said if a party member won an election and came to the house, he would remain a stranger until he took oath. “I wasn’t even nominated for the speaker’s slot then. He didn’t want me to take oath and become the speaker,” he claimed. PTI’s Mahmood had filed his nomination papers on Friday.

Sadiq also met with lawmakers from Fata and assured them of resolving their problems. The Fata lawmakers had earlier announced support for Syed Ghazi Ghulab Jamal as the assembly speaker.

Meanwhile, Information Minister Pervaiz Rashid said on Sunday that by participating in Monday’s election, the PTI was accepting results of the NA-122 by-election. In a veiled reference to PTI leaders, Rashid said a peculiar mindset was using abusive language and levelling baseless allegations against their opponents under the garb of opposition. He added that such mindset hindered the process of reconciliation and harmed the country. He urged the political parties to forget their petty issues, and shun the politics of confrontation.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 9^th, 2015.