Pakistan’s new parliament elects a speaker

ISLAMABAD, Mar 01 (AFP): Pakistan's new parliament elected a speaker on Friday, despite protests from lawmakers loyal to jailed ex-prime minister Imran Khan three weeks after an election they claim was brazenly rigged.

Sardar Ayaz Sadiq of the military-backed Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) party was elected by parliamentarians from his party and a handful of others in a coalition pact shutting Khan's followers out of power.

The 336-seat National Assembly convened yesterday for the first time since Pakistan's February 8 elections, and the alliance is slated to vote in PML-N's Shehbaz Sharif as prime minister on Sunday.

As lawmakers prepared to elect Sadiq, parliamentarians backed by Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party berated the outgoing speaker overseeing the ballot.