Islamabad: Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) nominee Sardar Ayaz Sadiq took over as Speaker of the National Assembly on Monday after his election by the newly elected 342-member house with a massive favourable vote.
Sadiq secured 258 votes whereas two other candidates, Shehryar Afridi from Pakistan Tehreeek-e-Insaaf (PTI) and SA Iqbal from Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), polled 31 and 23 votes respectively.
Outgoing Speaker Fehmida Mirza administered the oath to her successor, paid tributes in a brief speech to the previous assembly for strengthening democracy and took her seat on the opposition benches in the new house with colleagues from the Pakistan People’s Party.
PPP withdrew its candidate before the election and supported the PML-N nominee, in a goodwill gesture towards prime minister-in-waiting Nawaz Sharif and his party.
The assembly is scheduled to elect a leader of the house or prime minister on Wednesday, with the PML-N chief set to become the chief executive of the country for a third time in his nearly three-decade political career.
The new speaker pledged he would run the assembly with complete transparency and impartiality and said each member would have to play his or her role for the progress and stability of the country and for upholding supremacy of the constitution.
Earlier, Fehmida Mirza expressed confidence that the new speaker and assembly would work for further strengthening of democracy and resolving the problems being faced by the country.
Sardar Ayaz Sadiq was born on October 17, 1954 in Lahore, capital of the Punjab province.
A businessman by profession, he contested election for the first time in 2002 from a Lahore constituency, defeating PTI chairman Imran Khan.
In 2008 general election, Sadiq won in the same constituency against PPP and PML-Q candidates. In the 2013 general election held on May 11, he again won from the Lahore constituency, beating the PTI chief.
He graduated from the University of the Punjab in 1975. He has been chairman of Sardar Trust Eye Hospital since 1994.
