Around 115 of the 145 elected members of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly took oath on Wednesday morning.
The session commenced with Mushtaq Ghani (the speaker during the previous assembly) in the chair.
The session was supposed to commence at 11 am but could not commence until quarter to 1 pm.
Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), which enjoys a majority in the house, saw their nominated candidate for chief minister, Ali Amin Gandapur, take oath with a scarf wrapped around his neck sporting the party's colours. The PTI had to contest the February 8, 2024, general elections without its electoral symbol, 'Bat'. As a result, all of its candidates contested as independents and had to join with the Sunni Ittehad Council and Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam Fazl (JUI-F) to form a government after 90 of its members won in the province.
After the elections, the process for accepting nomination papers for the elections of the speaker and deputy speaker commenced. The papers will be accepted until 5 pm on Wednesday, with elections expected to occur on Thursday morning.
PTI founder Imran Khan had previously named former National Assembly Speaker Asad Qasir's brother, Aqibullah, as the party's candidate for KP Assembly speaker while general seat candidate from Chitral Suraiya Bibi for the slot of deputy speaker.
However, party insiders have claimed that Imran has changed his mind after some in the party expressed reservations about Aqibullah's name.
In his stead, Babar Saleem Swati is likely to be presented as the party's candidate for the provincial assembly speaker.
Shoe and water bottle
Before proceedings began, PML-N's elected representative, Sobia Shahid, arrived in the assembly hall and tried to remind the elected lawmakers about the time by showing them her watch.
As she did so, some Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) workers allegedly threw things at her, including an empty water bottle, a water urn (lota), a ball pen and a shoe.
PTI workers also started chanting slogans intensely.
PTI's nominated candidate for chief minister, Ali Amin Gandapur, was present in the house when this happened, and he remained unperturbed.
Mismanagement
The assembly administration issued over 1,000 passes to visitors for the oath-taking session even though the assembly hall had a much lower capacity.
As a result, assembly staff had trouble managing the large number of visitors. Many visitors managed to gain entry when they did not have the requisite pass.