LAHORE, Oct 8: New Punjab Assembly is likely to formally start functioning on Oct 20 with the transfer of powers of the chief executive from the governor to the new chief minister, official sources informed Dawn on Tuesday.
The governor would play a supervisory role after transferring powers to the elected government, they said, adding that the new cabinet would not be as large as was the case in the past.
According to Punjab Chief Secretary Hafeez Akhtar Randhawa, the first session would be convened immediately after the announcement of the official election results by the election commission on Oct 15.
He said: “We will change the rule of business by then and afterwards the files would stop at the chief minister’s level, transferring him the authority of the chief executive from the governor.”
The chief secretary said that except for declaring the governor as chief executive of the province during the Gen Musharraf government, there had been no change in the system. After election of the chief minister, all powers of the chief executive, now vested with the governor, would be returned to the chief minister, he added.
The sources said the first session would be presided over by a person to be nominated by the governor because of the absence of an elected speaker. It could either be the senior most elected MPA, a Lahore High Court judge, or a member of the election commission, they added.
The chief minister, they said, would most probably be inducted by Oct 20. Before that, the assembly would elect the speaker who would then conduct the election of the deputy speaker.
Punjab Assembly Secretary Dr Abul Hasan Najmi said a summary had been sent to the governor for the appointment of a person for presiding at the first session of the new assembly to be convened after the notification of the election results in the official gazette.
He said that under the law, the governor was authorized to appoint any person to preside over the first session in the absence of the speaker.
The first session of the 1964 West Pakistan Assembly was chaired by Justice Masood Ahmad, a member of the then election commission.
Senior MPA Muhammad Yaqoob Khan took the chair in the first session of the 1972 Punjab Assembly and Gujrat MPA Faiz Ahmad that of the 1985’s non-party assembly. According to Dr Najmi, if an MPA is nominated to preside over the maiden assembly session, he will be the first to take oath, and will then administer oath to other elected members.
Afterwards the assembly would invite nominations for the seat of the speaker who would be elected the next day through a secret ballot. The speaker would then conduct the election of the deputy speaker through a secret ballot.
It has been learnt that the government has started preparing for the induction of the new government. Offices of the ministers are being renovated and new cars bought for them.
The sources said 15 new diesel cars were being purchased for the ministers which they said indicated the size of the cabinet. The chief minister would use cars from his own fleet.
They said officials were being posted in the chief minister’s secretariat, and the secretary, cooperatives, G. M. Sikandar, who had served as the services secretary during the Shahbaz Sharif government, had been appointed as his (chief minister’s) acting secretary.
Mr Sikandar has been given the additional charge to allow the chief minister to select anybody for the post. But in the meantime, he will put the chief minister’s office in order, according to the sources.