Election of Chief Minister of Pakistan's Punjab province to take place tomorrow

Lahore: As Maryam Nawaz, the daughter of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, is going to get elected as the first woman chief minister of Pakistan's Punjab province on Monday, the PMLN has clinched both speaker and deputy speaker offices in Punjab Assembly.

"The election of Chief Minister Punjab will take place on Monday (tomorrow). The candidates of CM can submit nomination papers on Sunday (today)," Punjab Assembly Secretary Amer Habib said in a statement on Sunday.

Since the Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) (PMLN) and its allies have a simple majority in the House there is no problem with her grabbing the top slot.

The election for the Chief Minister office will be held between PMLN's Maryam Nawaz, 50, and Rana Aftab Ahmad of Imran Khan's PTI-backed Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC) nominee.

In a marathon session of the Punjab Assembly on Saturday, the lawmakers through a secret ballot elected PML-N leader Malik Ahmad Khan as the custodian of the house and Zaheer Iqbal Channar as his deputy.

Malik Ahmad Khan is a Sharif loyalist who defeated the PTI-backed Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC) nominee Malik Ahmad Khan Bachhar.

The PML-N candidates were backed by their allies, the PPP, Pakistan Muslim League-Q (PML-Q), and the Istehkam-i-Pakistan Party (IPP).

Out of the total 322 votes cast in the assembly, Malik Ahmed Khan secured 224 votes against 96 bagged by Ahmad Bachhar. Two votes were rejected. Zaheer Iqbal got 220 votes and Moin Riaz of the SIC/PTI received 103.

During the session, the SIC -- home of PTI-winning lawmakers -- accused the PMLN of stealing its mandate.

The SIC did not win even a single seat in the February 8 elections but PTI-backed independents have joined the party as part of an agreement reached between the two political parties last week. The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has yet to award 24 reserved seats for women and three for minorities.

Meanwhile, the PTI has changed its Punjab CM candidate Aslam twitch Rana Aftab Ahmad Khan.

PTI leader and former federal minister Hammad Azhar said on X: “As the Punjab police are present at the Punjab Assembly to arrest our CM candidate, Aslam Iqbal, the party leadership has decided to nominate Rana Aftab Ahmad Khan for the CM slot. Rana Aftab is the senior member of the PA who in the past got elected PA member five times.” He further said according to Form 45 (result), the SIC/PTI had 212 lawmakers while PMLN had just 44 MPAs as a matter of fact in the assembly.

“The current number of PML-N in the Punjab Assembly is a product of stolen mandate on February 8," he declared and lambasted the PMLN as 'mandate thieves' and their backers.