Newly elected members of NA take oath

Islamabad: The newly elected members of National Assembly have taken oath on Thursday.

According to the details, the 16^th session of National Assembly has started by the delay of one-hour.

The session presided over by former speaker National Assembly Raja Pervez Ashraf was supposed to start at 10:00am, however it started one hour after the scheduled time. The meeting formally started with recitation of Holy Quran.

Speaker National Assembly Raja Pervez Ashraf administered oath to the newly elected members, former President Asif Ali Zardari, former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, Chairman Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, President Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Shehbaz Sharif, Chief Jamat-e-Ulema Islami (JUI) Maulana Fazl-ur-Rehman, Khurshid Shah, Sardar Ayaz Sadiq and other newly elected members took oath.

Umar Ayub, Barrister Gohar, Ali Muhammad Khan of Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC) also took the oath. When Aleem Khan of Istehkam-e-Pakistan Party (IPP) was called to sign, the members of SIC raised slogans of betrayer.

Apart from this, Mahmood Khan Achakzai and Sardar Akhtar Mengal are also among those who took the oath. After the oath taking ceremony, the members signed the register.

After the oath taking ceremony, the second step will be the election of the new speaker and deputy speaker of the assembly, followed by the election of the prime minister.

The current National Assembly consists of 336 members, out of which 266 members are elected through direct elections while the remaining members are part of the House on reserved seats.

The nomination papers for the election of the Prime Minister will be collected on March 3, the National Assembly will elect the new Prime Minister on March 4 and he is likely to take the oath of office on the same day.

Shehbaz Sharif needs 169 votes to become the prime minister for the second time, while at present the PML-N and its allies have the support of more than 200 members.