The newly-elected Chief Minister (CM) of Punjab, Maryam Nawaz, took the oath of office after being elected as the first female chief executive of the province.
The ceremony took place at Punjab Governor House in Lahore, where Governor Punjab Baligh Ur Rehman administered the oath.
Maryam’s father, Nawaz Sharif and uncle Shehbaz Sharif, both former Prime Ministers, were present on the occasion.
Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Maryam Nawaz has been elected as Punjab’s Chief Minister (CM) on Monday afternoon after Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC) boycotted the electoral process in the assembly.
Maryam, who has become the first-ever female chief minister in Pakistan’s history, won the elections after receiving the backing of 220 MPAs in the provincial assembly.
Her opponent, Sunni Ittehad Council’s (SIC) candidate Rana Aftab Ahmad, didn’t get any votes because his party boycotted the electoral process for CM.
“The votes have been counted according to which Maryam has obtained 220 votes and SIC candidate Rana Aftab Aftab secured zero votes,” said Speaker Malik Ahmad Khan while presiding over the session.
The Punjab Assembly will likely elect new a chief minister of the province today (Monday). Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) vice president Maryam Nawaz is expected become CM Punjab as her party has the majority in provincial assembly after February 8 elections.
Maryam Nawaz will be the first female chief minister of the province in history.
The session has been summoned to meet at 11am and will be presided by newly-elected Punjab Assembly Speaker Malik Ahmad Khan.
The PML-N has support of 224 MPAs in the provincial assembly.
The candidate fielded by the Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC), Aftab Ahmad Khan, who is a senior leader of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), has the support of 103 MPAs. Maryam will face him as her opponent.
Aftab has served as a Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) MPA thrice in the Punjab Assembly in 1988, 1993 and 2002. He joined PTI in 2013 and is now serving his fourth term.
The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) interrogated vlogger Asad Ali Toor for hours about a social media campaign that criticized the superior judiciary. This happened after the Supreme Court (SC) made a decision regarding the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) ‘bat’ symbol, as reported by The News on Saturday.
A five-member joint investigation team (JIT) of the FIA has been conducting an inquiry to ascertain the facts behind an ongoing “malicious” campaign against the honourable judges of the apex court.
JIT sources said on Friday that two bloggers, Asad Ali Toor and Imran Riaz, were found to be trolling judges of the top court, particularly Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Qazi Faez Isa.
“Asad Toor was rounded up for investigation on Friday and his statement was recorded about his motives behind the malicious campaign against the judges,” the sources said, adding that the journalist remained with the JIT at the FIA (Cybercrime Wing), along with his counsel and human rights lawyer Imaan Zainab Mazari-Hazir.
Imaan Mazari posted on the social media platform X, formerly Twitter, saying that Toor and his legal team left the FIA Friday evening after his detention the same morning at 10:50am.
Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) founder Imran Khan has said on Friday that he has written a letter to International Monetary Fund (IMF), asking to look at the matter of poll rigging in Pakistan.
“The letter to the IMF has been written and will be dispatched today. If the country gets a loan in such a situation, then who will return it,” Khan asked the media during a hearing of the £190 million reference at Adiala Jail.
The former prime minister warned that taking the loan would cause more poverty, adding that unless the country invests in itself, its loans will continue to rise.
Khan’s update about the letter comes a day after PTI senator Ali Zafar announced that the party founder had decided to write a letter to the global lender, urging it to call for an audit of the February 8 election before it continues talks with Islamabad for a new loan programme.
IMF has previously never commented on rigging allegations, nor is probing rigging part of its mandate. The Fund has reportedly said on Friday that it looks forward to working with the new government.
Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Barrister Ali Zafar said on Thursday that PTI founder Imran Khan will write a letter to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to bring attention to alleged rigging in the general elections held on February 8.
“IMF, European Union, and other organisations have their charter that says these organisations will work in a country where there is good governance. For good governance, a country needs to have democracy that requires free and fair elections,” Ali Zafar said while speaking to media outside Adiala Jail.
The PTI leader and lawyer also alleged that the people’s mandate was stolen, and those who were losing on February 8 were declared winners the next morning.
“Democracy cannot be run with this fake mandate,” he said, adding that “no organization can give loans to a country where elections are rigged.”
The prominent lawyer also said that, through a letter, the PTI founder will request that the IMF to send a monitoring team to look at the matter of poll rigging first and then give loans to Pakistan.
He also mentioned that “any loan to the government that doesn’t have people’s mandate will not be in favour of Pakistan.”
After the power sharing deal, the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) are thinking about holding the Presidential election before the Senate election, as per The News.
According to Article 41(5), “…an election to fill a vacancy in the office of president shall be held not later than thirty days from the occurrence of the vacancy; provided that, if the election cannot be held within the period aforesaid because the National Assembly is dissolved, it shall be held within thirty days of the general elections to the Assembly.”
The newly elected assemblies will take their oaths by February 29, and a new government will be in place by March 2.
According to sources with The News, PML-N and their allied parties want the presidential election to be conducted on March 8, before the Senate polls.
On the other hand, PPP leader Senator Farooq H Naek said that according to law, presidential elections can be held 30 days after general polls.
“This means that the presidential election is to be held before March 9,” he said
Authorities have arrested a social media user suspected of being involved in a threatening campaign against Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Qazi Faez Isa, Geo reports.
Sources of The News identified the suspect as a social media user named Abdul Wasay, who lives in Rawalpindi. They said he used social media to run a “threatening campaign” against CJP Isa, where he threatened the chief justice and tried to damage his reputation.
“The rest of the people involved in the campaign will be identified and legal action will be taken against them,” the sources claimed.
The government has formed a joint investigation team (JIT) to investigate people who have been spreading harmful information on social media about Supreme Court judges, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), and government officers.
The JIT has been tasked to investigate mainly three specific points, according to a notification.
“To ascertain facts behind malicious social media campaign attempting to malign the image of honourable judges of the Supreme Court of Pakistan, to identify and to bring the culprits to book in accordance with the relevant laws and cause presentation of challans in the courts concerned, and to recommend measures for prevention against the occurrence of such incidents in future,” read the notification.
The Punjab Assembly will hold its first session after the February 8 elections today with members poised to take oath.
The Punjab Assembly is the first assembly out of five provincial houses to hold its first opening session after the general elections in Pakistan on February 8. The assembly meeting is scheduled to begin shortly.
Punjab Governor Muhammad Balighur Rehman formally issued a notification calling for the assembly meeting.
The speaker of the Punjab Assembly, Sabatin Khan, will take the oath of office for the newly elected representatives, welcoming them into the new legislative body.
Meanwhile, the schedule for the election of new speaker and deputy speaker of the house will also be released. After the induction of independent MPA-elects in the party, PML-N has become the largest party in the Punjab Assembly which has announced to form the government in the province as Maryam Nawaz its head, The News reported.
Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Asad Qaiser said on Wednesday that if the decision is made on merit, party founder Imran Khan will be the prime minister of Pakistan.
While speaking to the media outside of Adiala jail, Rawalpinid, Qaiser said that the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has conducted the worst polls in the country’s history.
“We still have hopes from the judicial system of Pakistan,” he remarked, adding that the party will continue its “legal struggle” against the people in power.
The former speaker of the National Assembly (NA) also said that the Islamabad High Court (IHC) gave him permission to meet Imran Khan, but jail authorities didn’t allow him to do so, instead asking him to come tomorrow.