Raja Pervaiz Ashraf became the first former Prime Minister to become Speaker

The newly elected Speaker of the National Assembly, Raja Pervez Ashraf, is the first former Prime Minister to be elected to the post.

Before this, the former Speaker must have become the President and the Prime Minister. There was no other hopeful compared to former Prime Minister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf, that is why he became the Speaker of the National Assembly unopposed.

The post of Speaker National Assembly was vacant due to the resignation of Asad Qaiser. This is the fourth time in the country’s history that the Speaker of the National Assembly resigned before the completion of his constitutional term.

First, after the 1973 constitution, the post of Speaker National Assembly went to Chaudhry Fazal Elahi, but when he became the President, it was given to Sahibzada Farooq Ahmad Khan.

For the second time in 1985, the then Speaker of the National Assembly, Syed Fakhr Imam, had to resign from office when the no-confidence motion against him was successful. After that, Hamid Nasir was elected as the sixth speaker of the National Assembly.

Ayaz Sadiq defeated Imran Khan in the 2013 elections and became the speaker of the National Assembly after becoming a member of the assembly. On Imran Khan’s election excuse, the election tribunal annulled the election of the National Assembly on the basis of irregularities and he had to leave the post.

Ayaz Sadiq was again elected from the same constituency in Lahore and Nawaz Sharif made him the speaker of the National Assembly again.

Sardar Ayaz Sadiq started his politics with Tehreek-e-Insaaf and contested for provincial assembly from the same party. However, he later joined the Muslim League-N and contested against his former party Tehreek-e-Insaf chief Imran Khan.

Tehreek-e-Insaf’s Asad Qaiser is the fourth speaker of the National Assembly who resigned from his post. He resigned from the chairmanship of the meeting for the no-confidence motion against Imran Khan.

Fahmida Mirza, the wife of Zulfikar Ali Mirza, a close friend of the former president, got the honor of becoming the first woman speaker in the lower house of the Parliament of Pakistan.

Earlier in 1977, Dr. Ashraf Abbasi was elected as the Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly. Dr. Ashraf Abbasi was the mother of People’s Party leader Safdar Abbasi and mother-in-law of Benazir Bhutto’s political secretary Naheed Khan.

Fahmida Mirza is the first speaker of the National Assembly who broke this tradition and won the upcoming elections.

Before that, it had become a tradition that the speaker of the assembly who completed the constitutional term or was dissolved could not be elected as a member of the new assembly and only presided over the opening session of the National Assembly and remained in the house until the new speaker met the assembly.

When Benazir Bhutto assumed power in 1988, she elected two members of the assembly as speaker and deputy speaker of the National Assembly who were appointed to these two positions of the National Assembly during the martial law in 1977.

In this way, Malik Meraj Khalid became the Speaker of the National Assembly for the second time in 1988 and Dr. Ashraf Abbasi became the Deputy Speaker.

When Nawaz Sharif became the Prime Minister for the first time, he made Captain Gohar Ayub, the son of former military president Ayub Khan, as the speaker of the National Assembly, but he could not become a member of the assembly elected in 1993.

Former People’s Party chief Benazir Bhutto made Yusuf Raza Gilani the speaker in her second term of government. NAB also made a reference on his illegal appointment in the assembly after his resignation. He was the first politician to be elected as the Prime Minister of the country in 2008 after serving as Speaker.

Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani could not complete his term due to contempt of court and he faced disqualification due to court punishment.

Senior politician Malik Meraj Khalid also became the Prime Minister after being elected Speaker of the National Assembly twice, but he was the Prime Minister in the caretaker government.

President Sardar Farooq Ahmad Khan Laghari dismissed Benazir Bhutto’s government and Malik Meraj Khalid was made caretaker prime minister.

Meraj Khalid and Farooq were old friends but both belonged to the People’s Party. In an event, Meraj Khalid called Farooq Laghari a Dil Ka Jani.

Nawaz Sharif in his second term in power in 1997, instead of making ex-Speaker Capt. Retired Gohar Ayub as Speaker again, he gave the post of Speaker National Assembly to Elahi Bahish Soomro while the former Prime Minister gave Gohar Ayub the portfolio of Finance Ministry.

Elahi Bakhsh Soomro was a friend of former Prime Minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto. He was the first speaker of the National Assembly who belonged to the province of Sindh.

Elahi Bakhsh Soomro was not successful in the 2002 elections but presided over the inaugural meeting as per tradition and rules.

The opposition parties in the National Assembly, the People’s Party and the Muslim League-N, refused to take the oath of office of General Pervez Musharraf’s PCO. Elahi Bakhsh Soomro convinced them that they were taking the oath of the members under the 1973 constitution, which did not include the PCO issued by the military president.

People’s Party and Muslim League-N members of the National Assembly took the oath of office on the assurance and rolling of outgoing Speaker Elahi Bakhsh Soomro.

In 2002, the ruling party Muslim League-Q nominated former law minister Chaudhry Ameer Hussain for the post of speaker and he was pitted against the leader of the opposition People’s Party and former law minister Barrister Aitzaz Ahsan.

Chaudhry Amir Hussain became the Speaker of the National Assembly but could not become a member of the National Assembly elected in 2008.

After the resignation of the former Speaker National Assembly Asad Qaiser, the former Speaker National Assembly on joining the Chairman Panel not only held a referendum on the motion of no confidence but also chaired the meeting to elect the Prime Minister. Ayaz Sadiq also administered oath to the new Speaker Qaumi Raja Pervez Ashraf.