National Assembly elects 18th PM today

Following the disqualification of Nawaz Sharif by the Supreme Court, the National Assembly will elect the country's eighteenth prime minister on today, for which major political parties have already fielded their respective candidates.

The ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) has chosen Shahid Khaqan Abbasi as its candidate for prime minister. 

The assembly's second biggest party in terms of numbers, Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), has nominated Opposition Leader Khursheed Shah and Naveed Qamar, while Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) has fielded Sheikh Rasheed as its nominee.

Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan and Jamaat-e-Islami have named Kishwar Zehra and Sahibzada Tariqullah respectively for the election of the new prime minister.

Although the PML-N holds a majority in the National Assembly and can easily elect its own candidate, the opposition intends to 'put up a fight'. However, the opposition parties' meeting on Monday failed to result in an agreement over a joint candidate.

There are three seats empty, including the one of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, in the 342-seat Lower House of the Parliament. It is likely that all of the remaining 339 members will take part in today's voting process.

The process 

According to the Constitution and rules of the House, the speaker will announce the process for members to elect a new Leader of the House. For five minutes, bells will be rung in the lobby to let members gather inside the assembly hall.

The speaker will announce the name of every member one-by-one and in alphabetical order to receive his/her ballot paper. The members would mark the candidate of their choice with a tick on the ballot paper and put it in the ballot box.

If a member of the assembly impresses any other mark on the ballot paper other than the checkmark and/or ticked more than one name, did not impress the mark correctly or left the ballot paper unmarked, his or her vote will be rejected.

Upon completion of the voting process, bells will again be rung for two minutes so that members could again gather in the hall to listen to the result.

The speaker will announce the result and the successful candidate and those who contested the election would be given a chance to address the House.

Due to the vacant seat of Leader of the House, no other business can take place in the House except for the election process, according to assembly rules.

According to the Constitution, the process of the prime minister's election would continue untill a candidate achieves a clear majority: 172 votes.

After the premier's election, the newly-elected Leader of the House will take oath of his office at the Presidency. The incumbent president will administer oath to the new prime minister.his office at the Presidency. The incumbent president will administer oath to the new prime minister.

The tradition is that the president also administers oath to members of the new cabinet.

Abbasi interim PM, Shehbaz to fill in later 

A day after Nawaz Sharif's disqualification, the parliamentary party meeting of the PML-N decided to make Punjab Chief Minister Shehbaz Sharif — the brother of the ousted premier — to be the party’s candidate for the slot. 

However, at the meeting, Nawaz announced that former petroleum minister, Abbasi, will be the premier until Shehbaz is elected to a National Assembly seat and subsequently made the prime minister.

"If you support anyone after me, I ask you to support Shehbaz Sharif," said Nawaz during the meeting, held at the Punjab House a day after Nawaz's ouster by the apex court.

"It will take Shehbaz Sharif 50-55 days to take over as prime minister. He will have to contest [national] elections. For the interim period, I am recommending Shahid Khaqan Abbasi for the position of prime minister."

Then prime minister Nawaz Sharif was disqualified from holding public office by the Supreme Court on Friday.

Sharif was disqualified under Article 62 (1) (f) of the Constitution over his failure to disclose un-withdrawn receivables constituting assets from a UAE-based company. It implied he was not ‘honest’ and ‘truthful’, as per the country’s Constitution.