Pakistan Poples Party's (PPP) lawmaker Syed Awais Qadir Shah was Sunday elected as the new speaker of the Sindh assembly for the next five years.
In the election for the deputy speaker, PPP Reserved seat member Anthony Naveed was elected.
The Sindh assembly reconvened on Sunday under the leadership of Agha Siraj Durrani. Durrani, the speaker of the last assembly, continued in his position until the newly elected house elected his successor.
On Sunday, nine independent candidates who had joined the Sunni Ittehad Council and a Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) elected member were administered the oath of assembly to formally induct them as MPAs. With the addition of these 10 MPAs, the total strength of MPAs in the house increased to 157, still 11 shy of the full number of 168 because reserved seats for SIC have yet to be allocated by the ECP while some members of the Grand Democratic Alliance, PPP and independents have yet to take the oath.
The nine members of SIC who took oath include those independent candidates backed by the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) but could not contest as PTI members after the party's symbol was withdrawn.
The PPP had nominated Shah and Naveed as its candidates, while the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) had nominated Sofia Syed Shah and Rashid Khan as its candidates for the two slots.
Durrani nominated a panel for the session to conduct the polls. Members of the nominated panel included Sharjeel Memon, Saeed Ghani, Nida Khuhro, and Ali Khursheed.
Subsequently, voting for the speaker and deputy speaker via secret ballot proceeded.
Members of the SIC, however, boycotted the voting.
Once the voting process was completed, Durrani announced the results. He said Shah won the election by securing 111 votes, while his opponent Sofia Shah got 36.
Durrani then administered the oath of the assembly speaker to Shah and handed over the speaker robes to him.
After taking over proceedings in the house, Shah conducted the elections for the deputy speaker through a secret ballot.
The results of this election were identical to the results of the election for the speaker, with Naveed winning after securing 111 votes. Rashid lost after he could only muster 36 votes.
In the next session, the elections for the provincial chief minister are expected.
The PPP has nominated Murad Ali Shah as its candidate for chief minister. Should he win, which he is quite likely to given the PPP's numerical dominance in the house, it would mark his third tenure as chief minister.