Sunni Ittehad Council’s (SIC) Babar Saleem Swati and Surayya Bibi have been elected as speaker and deputy speaker of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly respectively, reported 24NewsHD TV channel.
The voting for the elections of speaker and the deputy speaker’s slots was held in the provincial legislature on Thursday.
Babar Saleem Swati pocketed 89 votes while his rival PPP’s Ahsanullah Miankhel managed to grab 17 votes only.
SIC’s Surayya Bibi obtained 87 votes, two less than Swati’s 89, and his rival Opposition’s Arbab Wasim Hayat could only get 19 votes.
Later, outgoing KP Assembly Speaker Mushtaq Ghani administered oath to the newly-elected speaker Babar Saleem Swati.
While the SIC had earlier named Babar Saleem Swati and Surraya Bibi as their candidates for the seats of the speaker and the deputy speaker, respectively, the opposition parties had announced that Ahsanullah Miankhel and Arbad Waseem Hayat Khan will be their candidates for the said posts.
While Miankhel belonged to the PPP, Arbad Khan belongs to the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf-Parliamentarians (PTI-P).
Reporter: Amir Shehzad