Maryam Nawaz: First Female Chief Minister of Punjab
With 220 votes, Maryam Nawaz, the leader of the Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) became the first female chief minister of Punjab. Rana Aftab Ahmad Khan, the nominee for the Sunni Ittehad Council, received 0 votes. The PA session, chaired by PA Speaker Malik Muhammad Ahmad Khan, began over forty minutes later than planned at 11:00 am.
The Holy Quran was recited at the beginning of the session, and then Naat-e-Rasool-e-Maqbool (Peace Be Upon Him) was performed.
Following the vote and counting procedure, PA Speaker Malik Muhammad Ahmad Khan pronounced Maryam Nawaz the winner of the leadership position in the house. In addition, the speaker congratulated Maryam Nawaz on her appointment as Punjab’s chief minister.
The Punjab Assembly session was fully boycotted and the Sunni Ittehad Council refrained from participating in any way. It is noteworthy that the Muslim League-N has the backing of 224 members in the 327-member Punjab Assembly, compared to the 186 needed to become chief minister. Conversely, the Sunni Ittehad Council is backed by 103 members.
Prior to this, the nomination papers of Syed Murad Ali Shah of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and Ali Khurshidi of Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) for the chief minister position in Sindh, as well as Maryam Nawaz of the PML-N and Rana Aftab of the Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC), were deemed legitimate following examination.
