LAHORE: The maiden session of the 371-strong 17th house of the Punjab Assembly whose members-elect are taking oath on Wednesday (today) will have a majority of new faces.

Out of 297 general seats of the assembly, at least 188 will be occupied by those who were not part of the previous house and a majority of them are first-timers.

Similarly, there will be 41 new faces on 66 reserved seats for women and five newcomers out of eight seats reserved for religious minorities.

Former (ceremonial) deputy prime minister and PML-Q senior leader Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi will be the most senior parliamentarian in the house of which he became member for the first time in 1985.

Mr Elahi won all the subsequent elections held in 1988, 1990, 1993, 1997, 2002, 2008, 2013 and 2018. In 1997, (as part of then PML-N) he had been promised the slot of chief minister but was made speaker after Nawaz Sharif chose to appoint his younger brother Shahbaz Sharif as the provincial chief executive. Carving out his own party (PML-Q) out of N-League after October 1999 military coup, Mr Elahi became chief minister of Punjab after 2002 polls.

In 2008 and 2013, he preferred National Assembly membership to the provincial house as he had won seats in both the houses in the two general elections. In July 25 vote too, he secure both national and provincial assembly seats, but opted for the latter under an agreement with the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI), which is set to form coalition governments both in the centre and Punjab. Under the agreement, Mr Elahi has been offered the slot of speaker, though his party has won just eight seats.

The 17th house will also see former provincial ministers Basharat Raja, Chaudhry Zaheeruddin and Ahmed Ali Aulakh, who were not part of the previous house (2013-18).

Hamza Shahbaz, son of former chief minister Shahbaz Sharif, will appear in the house for the first time as in spite of winning the Punjab Assembly seats in the last three general elections, he had preferred to retain his National Assembly seat. The PML-N has nominated him as a candidate for chief minister’s slot as well as the opposition leader’s.

Another notable thing in the new house will be the presence of three former speakers – Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi, Muhammad Afzal Sahi (who remained speaker when Mr Elahi was the chief minister in 2002-08), and the outgoing one, Rana Muhammad Iqbal.

Rana Iqbal remained custodian of the house for two consecutive terms -- 2008-13 and 2013-18 -- as nominee of the PML-N. But the N League has this time decided to field Chaudhry Muhammd Iqbal (of Gujranwala) against Mr Elahi, who has been nominated by the PTI for the office.

Interestingly, Chaudhry Iqbal has served as a minister in the cabinet of Mr Elahi (2002-07).

Meanwhile, the Punjab Assembly secretariat has written to the members-elect that they should not bring any guest to the oath-taking ceremony with them for there’s no space available to accommodate them.

Published in Dawn, August 15th, 2018