Asif
Farooqi, IOL Pakistan correspondent
ISLAMABAD,
November 19 (IslamOnline) - The pro-military party, Pakistan Muslim
League (Q) proved its majority in the newly elected Parliament when its
member was elected Speaker of the National Assembly in a secret ballot
Tuesday, November 19.
A
senior member of the League, by a clear majority won the elections to
head the first Pakistani Parliament since the military coup in 1999
defeating two other contenders for Speaker of the National Assembly.
In
a secret ballot held on the second day of the newly elected National
Assembly Chauhdary Ameer Hussain of PML(Q) bagged 167 out of the total
327 votes polled during the elections. Liauqat Baloch of the Islamists
MMAP got 80 and people’s party candidate AItezaz Ehsan secured 71
votes. Nine votes were rejected as invalid.
Election
of the pro-military member of the National Assembly as Speaker of the
Parliament has revealed the trend which might be adopted in the election
for the highest government slot, the Prime Minister, later this week.
President
General Pervez Musharraf is to formally announce a date for the election
of the Prime Minister.
However,
in view of the voting pattern adopted in the election of the Speaker,
the party of Ameer Hussain is likely to succeed in the election of the
Prime Minister too.
Failure
of the two anti-government parties, MMAP and PPPP helped the League to
secure a big majority in the National Assembly, though the voting
pattern showed the League would have won anyways, even if the
anti-government parties had reached some agreement for the election of
Speaker
