The Punjab Assembly’s newly elected speaker, Sibtain Khan, and others were named as respondents in a petition filed on Saturday by the PML-N challenging the election of the assembly’s speaker that had taken place the day before. Mansoor Usman Awan filed the plea with the Lahore High Court. It asserts that “legal requirements were not met” for the elections.
After former officeholder Pervez Elahi was chosen as the new chief minister of Punjab on July 26, the Punjab Assembly elected PTI’s Sibtain Khan, who was a joint candidate of his party and the PML-Q, as the new speaker on Friday. Sibtain won the election with 185 votes to Saif ul Malook Khokhar of the PML-N, who was the joint candidate of the opposition, and 175 votes.
According to the petition filed today contesting the election, voting should take place in secret, and it is “constitutionally unconstitutional” for ballots to include serial numbers. The petitioner urged that the provincial assembly speaker be re-elected and referred to yesterday’s voting as “null and void.”