PTI's Asad Qaiser takes oath as NA speaker

Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf's (PTI) Asad Qaiser was sworn in as National Assembly (NA) speaker on Wednesday, beating out the candidate fielded by a fragile opposition alliance, PPP stalwart Khursheed Shah, in a secret ballot. The election for the post of deputy speaker was going on, according to dawn.com.

Qaiser, the former Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly speaker, received 176 votes to Shah's 146 votes. Eight votes were rejected.

Following the announcement, Sadiq administered oath to Qaiser among loud chants of vote ko izzat do by opposition lawmakers.

Qaiser, after the announcement, made a round of the opposition benches and shook hands with opposition leaders seated in the front row of the assembly.

Outgoing Ayaz Sadiq announced the name of the speaker after newly elected MNAs voted for their preferred candidates.

The election was expected to commence at 10am; however, the session faced a delay of nearly one hour due to the late arrival of MNAs.

Prime minister-in-waiting Imran Khan left the assembly after his casting vote for the speaker and returned as counting of ballots commenced.

Ayaz Sadiq delivered a speech in the house thanking his party and opposition parties for their support throughout his tenure, particularly during the 2014 protests and the resignation of lawmakers.

He congratulated Qaiser and winning the contest for speaker, and Shah for putting up a fight.

"Many times I listened to people call me 'fake speaker' and say 'we won't agree' to me, but I didn't frown once," he said.

He asked for lawmakers to respect each other despite their differences. "I would like all of us to work for Pakistan's betterment," he added.

"Each second of each minute that I gave to the opposition (as speaker) is recorded. My government complained that I lean too much towards the opposition," he said.

Recalling the mass resignation of lawmakers, Sadiq called for changes to rules regarding attendance of lawmakers in the assembly and the procedure surrounding it.

He also lauded the formation of the Elections Act 2017 that was worked on by all political parties, but also mentioned shortcomings in Section 95-5 pertaining to recounting of results at the time of consolidation of votes.

He also regretted that the Election Commission of Pakistan did not execute its responsibilities as required despite being given greater powers than before.