LAHORE (PEN) : The Punjab Assembly is set to elect a new chief minister today (Monday) with Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Senior Vice President Maryam Nawaz most likely to secure the office as her party enjoys a majority in the provincial assembly after the February 8 general elections.
If successful in the elections, Maryam will be the first-ever female chief minister in Pakistan’s 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 currently has the backing of 224 MPAs in the provincial assembly.
Maryam’s opponent will be the candidate fielded by the Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC), Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) senior leader Aftab Ahmad Khan, who has the support of 103 MPAs.
Aftab has served as a Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) MPA for three terms in the Punjab Assembly in 1988, 1993 and 2002. He joined the PTI in 2013 and is now serving his fourth term.
To win the CM’s election, a candidate needs to win the backing of the majority which is 187 members in the house that currently has 327 seats.
The PML-N and SIC are expected to hold separate meetings of the parliamentary parties ahead of the assembly session.
Fourth Sharif family member to rule Punjab
Apart from becoming the first female chief minister in the country, Maryam will also become the fourth member of the Sharif family and first woman member of her family to get elected as CM if she wins the contest.
The PML-N senior vice president was elected on two seats of Lahore — NA 119 and PP-159 — later she withdrew from the National Assembly seat.
In the PP-159 constituency, she contested against the PTI affiliated candidate Mehr Sharafat and won with a slim margin.
Overall, she is the sixth member of Sharif family who has been elected in a general or a by-election.
Before her, Nawaz Sharif, Shehbaz Sharif, Abbas Sharif, Hamza Shehbaz and Begum Kalsoom Nawaz were elected from Lahore.
PML-N finalising cabinet
Meanwhile, the PML-N has started finalising the names for Maryam’s cabinet.
Party sources said that it was decided that the provincial cabinet will be constituted in a phased manner and for the first phase some names were under discussion.
They said the provincial cabinet of the PML-N leader will contain ministers from the allied parties.
Sources said in the first phase, 15 to 20 ministers were expected to be included in the cabinet from the PML-N and two each from the PPP and PML-Q, and one from the Istehkam-e-Pakistan Party (IPP).
The names under discussion included PML-N leaders Marriyum Aurangzeb, Azma Bokhari, Tahir Sindhu, Mian Mujtaba Shujaur Rahman, Khawaja Salman Rafiq, Bilal Yasin, Khawaja Imran Nazir, Rukhsana Kausar, Manshaullah Butt, Sardar Sher Ali Gurchani, Kazim Ali Pirzada, Colonel (retired) Muhammad Ayub Khan Gadhi, Malik Asif Bhai, Akhtar Bosal, Rahila Khadim Hussain, Mian Yawar Zaman, Fida Hussain Watto, Tanveer Aslam Malik, Malik Asad Khokhar, Farrukh Ali Javed and Sheikh Salman Naeem.
Sources further claimed that PPP’s Syed Ali Haider Gillani, Malik Ghazanfar Abbas Chheena of the IPP and Chaudhary Shafay Hussain of the PML-Q are likely to be inducted into the provincial cabinet.
