LAHORE: Syed Khursheed Shah and Dr Nafisa Shah are figuring prominently among the likely candidates for the National Assembly speaker from the PPP.

The party in a meeting, presided over by Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari, in Islamabad on Thursday evening discussed credentials of its various MNAs-elect to run for the coveted office after the joint opposition reached the agreement that it would support PPP nominee for the speaker’s slot and of Muttahida Majlis Amal for deputy speaker.

A source privy to the development says that the arguments put forward in favour of Khursheed Shah were that not only he was a seasoned politician in the political field since 1988 he had also earned a name as opposition leader in the National Assembly, and developed good relations with leadership of other parties through his humble persona and won many admirers from among rivals because of his gentle style of politics.

Dr Nafisa was considered for she could attract votes of women parliamentarians from the ‘treasury’ benches through the contacts she had developed as general secretary of Women Parliamentary Caucus.

Holding a PhD in social and cultural anthropology from the Oxford University, Ms Shah proved her administrative skills by leading Khairpur, Sindh, district government as Nazim from 2001 to 2007.

She has also been a parliamentarian since 2008 for she was elected twice on reserve seat for consecutive two terms - 2008 and 2013-18. In the July 25 vote, she defeated former Sindh chief minister Syed Ghaus Ali Shah on a general seat bagging over 100,000 votes.

She has been chair of the National Commission for Human Development and vice-president of Commonwealth Parliamentary Association.

It may be recalled that earlier PPP’s Dr Fehmida Mirza served as National Assembly speaker from 2008-13.

Published in Dawn, August 4th, 2018