ISLAMABAD, Nov 17: The National Assembly will elect its speaker and deputy speaker on Tuesday through a secret ballot. The session will start at 10am with former speaker Ilahi Bakhsh Soomro in the chair.

The nomination papers for the two positions will be filed with the secretary of the National Assembly by Nov 19 till 12 noon. The candidates can withdraw the papers any time before the start of the polling.

The speaker being elected on Tuesday will be the 15th one.

The first session of parliament was presided over by Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah who remained chairman of the assembly from Aug 11, 1947 to Sept 11, 1948.

The second speaker was Maulvi Tamizuddin Khan who served from Dec 14, 1948 to Oct 24, 1954. He was followed by Mir Abdul Wahad Khan who held the post from Aug 12, 1955 to Oct 7, 1958.

Then Fazal ul Qadir Chaudhry remained speaker from Nov 29, 1963 to June 12, 1965. He was replaced by Abdul Jabbar Khan who held the post from June 12, 1965 to March 25, 1969. Chaudhry Fazal Elahi was next in line from Aug 15, 1972 to Aug 7, 1973.

Then Sahibzada Farooq Ali was elected speaker on Aug 9, 1973 and remained in office till March 27, 1977. He was followed by Malik Mairaj Khalid who served from March 27, 1977 to July 5, 1977.

Syed Fakhar Imam was the next to hold the post from March 23, 1985 to May 26, 1986. He was followed by Hamid Nasir Chattha from March 31, 1986 to Dec 3, 1988.

Malik Mairaj Khalid was again elected speaker on Dec 3, 1988. He continued to be in office till Nov 4, 1990.

Then Gohar Ayub Khan was elected speaker Nov 4, 1990 and continued till Oct 17, 1993. He was followed by Syed Yousaf Raza Gilani who remained speaker from Oct 17, 1993 to Feb 16, 1997.

The last in line was Ilahi Bakhsh Soomro who became the speaker on Feb 16, 1997.—APP