LAHORE: The ruling coalition in Punjab comfortably won the contest for the Punjab Assembly speaker’s office here on Friday, though the polling process was marred by allegations of violation of the secret ballot method.

PTI leader Sibtain Khan secured 185 votes to defeat the opposition PML-N’s Saiful Malook Khokhar, who bagged 175 ballots, while four votes were rejected – one for the ruling coalition and three polled for the opposition. The total strength of the provincial house is 371 out of which 364 lawmakers cast their votes.

Independent MPA Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan as well as three other members did not turn up, while one MPA was recently disqualified by the election commission for holding a fake graduation degree. Two PML-N MPAs had resigned earlier this month.

The polling process was going on smoothly, and about 200 ballots had been cast when it was pointed out that the ballot papers being issued to the ruling PTI and PML-Q members carried serial numbers. Those being issued to the opposition PML-N, PPP and independents were without such marks.

Deputy speaker Mazari ousted through no-trust motion

The opposition protested and PML-N MPA Rukhsana Kausar tried to snatch the copy of the ballot papers from the presiding officer issuing them.

Polling was suspended for five minutes and the chair, Waseem Badozai, summoned the assembly’s security staff for help when opposition legislators tried to besiege him in protest against the alleged secret ballot violation and demanded the election be held afresh.

Opposition leader Hamza Shehbaz announced challenging the election in court on Saturday (today) after the chair turned down the demand for re-polling.

Later, Mr Badozai administered the oath to Sibtain Khan, while the proceedings were suspended for half an hour to take up the next agenda item – no-trust motion against Deputy Speaker Dost Muhammad Mazari.

Mazari voted out

In a late night development, the ruling coalition managed to oust Mr Mazari as the deputy speaker after 186 MPAs voted against him on a no-confidence motion.

It was a challenging situation for the PTI-PML-Q alliance, as a vote of no-confidence required an absolute majority – more than half of the total strength of the house despite vacant seats. In the case of the 371-member assembly, the required number was 186, which is just what the coalition had. The rejection of even a single vote for any reason could have cost the treasury dearly in the no-trust motion.

Published in Dawn, July 30th, 2022