PESHAWAR, Oct 18: A senior parliamentarian will administer the oath to the newly-elected members of the provincial assembly, sources said.

Officials of the Frontier Assembly secretariat said that under the rules the provincial governor would nominate the senior most parliamentarian from among the existing lot to act as a presiding officer and to administer the oath to the new members.

As per the provincial assembly’s rules of business, outgoing speaker administers the oath to the new members.

The officials said after the dissolution of the last provincial assembly, the outgoing speaker, Hadayatullah Khan Chamkani, was not eligible to preside over the inaugural session of the house and administers the oath to the MPAs-elect.

The provincial assembly’s rule 8 (2) says: “The meeting of the assembly for election of the speaker shall be presided over by the outgoing speaker, and if he be absent, by such a member as may be nominated by the governor for the purpose.”

Among the newly-elected MPAs Sardar Inayatullah Gandapur, Aftab Sherpao, Pir Mohammad Khan, Bashir Ahmad Bilour, Abdul Akbar Khan, Shahzada Gustasib and Akram Khan Durrani are senior parliamentarians and the governor may ask anyone of them to preside over the inaugural session.

Out of 124 members, only 15 have the previous experience of parliamentary politics, while the rest have been elected for the first time owing to graduation condition and MMA’s onslaught.

Aftab Sherpao, chief of his own faction of PPP, who has been elected to both the national and provincial assemblies from his native Charsadda district, is likely to retain his National Assembly seat and vacate his seat in the provincial assembly leaving the total number of senior MPAs to 14.

The officials said after the installation of National Assembly the governor would summon the provincial assembly session. After administering the oath to new members the assembly would elect the speaker and deputy speaker.