National Assembly Speaker Ayaz Sadiq is reading out the procedure for the election of the prime minister as provided by the NA rules.

“The election will be by division. Before voting commences, I will direct the bells to be rung for five minutes to enable the members not present in the chamber to be present,” he said, adding that all the entrances to the lobby would be locked after the bells stopped ringing.

Sadiq said no one would be allowed to enter or exit the house until polling for the premier was completed.

He added that there were two contesting candidates — Shehbaz Sharif and Omer Ayub — and whoever won the majority of votes of the total NA membership would be declared elected.