Elahi challenges Gillani in battle for premiership
Staff Report

ISLAMABAD—NA speaker Dr Fahmida Mirza has accepted nomination papers of Syed Yousuf Raza Gillani, joint candidate of PPP and its allied parties and PML-Q candidate Chaudhry Pervez Elahi for premiership. .
National assembly session will take place today at 4 pm for polling of premiership. Members of the national assembly will elect new prime minister through open voting. NA speaker told 6 nomination papers were filed for Syed Yousuf Raza Gillani and all were accepted after detailed scrutiny. Like wise 4 nomination papers of Chaudhry Pervez Elahi were accepted, she said.
With the course for strong democracy already set in the country, National Assembly would meet Monday evening in the Parliament building to elect 22nd Prime Minister of Pakistan. Makhdoom Yousaf Raza Gillani would surely be the future Prime Minister of Pakistan as he enjoys support of the four coalition parties in National Assembly as well as a late entry Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM).
Speaker National Assembly Dr Fahmida Mirza would conduct the proceedings of the House to elect the new Prime Minister through a division mechanism as no secret vote is held for election of the Prime Minister. The Speaker would also announce the procedure for the election of the Prime Minister prior to start of the process. After announcing the procedure the bells would be rung inviting attention of the members to come to House and participate in proceedings.
When the bells are rung, the entry doors of the House would be locked and election process would start. Two galleries on left and right to the Speaker chair would be allocated for the members to show their support to candidates of their choice.
A roll register would be placed at the entry points of each gallery where the members supporting each candidate would write their names that would later be counted to ascertain how many members have votes for which candidate. This process would culminate in counting of members in support of each candidate and the Speaker National Assembly would announce the result.
It is hoped that the new Prime Minister would enjoy thumping majority in the House after MQM’s extending him unconditional support. In the election of Speaker Dr Fahmida Mirza had won support of 249 members out of 328, who had taken oath and put their names on the National Assembly roll.
But, after support of MQM, if all the members are present and those who had voted for Fahmida Mirza as well as the MQM members, all vote for Yousaf Raza Gillani, the tally may reach around 280. It would be unprecedented support for a Premiership candidate after Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif in their 1972 and 1997 elections respectively.
When elected Yousaf Raza Gillani would be 22nd Prime Minister of Pakistan as earlier 21 people have served the country as Prime Minister with Nawaz Sharif and late Benazir Bhutto holding this office twice. The Prime Minister elect is also hoped to issue policy statement in National Assembly soon after his election.
However, outlines of detailed agenda of the coalition would hopefully be announced by the new Prime Minister after taking vote of confidence from the House, as mentioned by Mr Gillani at his news conference.