Asianbangla Desk : The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) has been allotted 28 reserved seats for women and five for non-Muslims by the election commission, taking the party’s tally to 158 in the National Assembly — just 14 short of the number required for simple majority.
The Election Commission of Pakistan on Saturday distributed the reserved seats among the parties on the basis of their final tally of elected members. There are 60 seats reserved for women and 10 for minorities in the NA.
Khan’s party, which is just 14 short of the number required for simple majority, will depend on smaller parties to prove its majority in the House.
In another development, the top leadership of the PPP and PML-N on Saturday finalised a joint strategy to be followed during the election of the prime minister as well as the National Assembly’s speaker and deputy speaker.
The PPP reportedly remained non-committal about its support for the PML-N in the election of chief minister, speaker and deputy speaker in Punjab.
Meanwhile, Pakistan’s newly-elected parliament is meeting today for the first time to start the process of transition and handing over powers to the new government.
President Mamnoon Hussain has already summoned the maiden session of National Assembly, the lower house, at 10:00 am in parliament house.
According to law, the speaker of the previous assembly, Ayaz Sadiq, will administer the oath to the new lawmakers, followed by election of the speaker and the deputy speaker.
After the election of the new speaker, the outgoing speaker will give him the oath and hand over charge of the new house.
PTI spokesman Fawad Chaudhry said the party has already nominated Khan as prime minister and Asad Qaisar as speaker. It has not announced the candidate for deputy speaker so far.
Party sources said the Cabinet list has not been finalised but there is general consensus that Shah Mahmood Qureshi will be the new foreign minister and Pervez Khattak as interior minister.
Asad Umar is expected to get the key post of finance minister and Khan is also expected to appoint prominent businessman Abdul Razzak Dawood as advisor on finance. Dawood served in the cabinet of former military dictator Pervez Musharraf.
