All four provincial assemblies to elect top officials today

It is a busy day for democracy today, with the newly sworn-in assemblies of Punjab and Balochistan electing their speakers and deputy speakers, while the provincial assemblies of Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa elect their chief ministers for the next five years.

Punjab
In the Punjab Assembly, the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) has nominated ally Chaudhary Pervez Illahi of PML-Q for the post of the speaker and its own party's Dost Mazari for deputy speaker.

Meanwhile, the PML-N has nominated Iqbal Gujar and Waris Kalo for the post of speaker and deputy speaker, respectively.

A total of 354 MPAs are expected to cast their vote in the election. It will be a close contest as the PTI is expected to get 185 votes, including 10 of the PML-Q, whereas the PML-N is expected to get around 162 votes.

The PPP has said it will boycott today's election in the assembly.

"We will not cast votes for the speaker and deputy speaker," MPA Hassan Murtaza told today. "We are not participating [in the election] because of the N-League's attitude towards us," he added.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
Meanwhile, in the KP Assembly, where the PTI has already grabbed the speaker and deputy speaker's slots, the party has nominated Mahmood Khan — former provincial minister for sports and a billionaire from Swat — as the new chief minister. The opposition has fielded Mian Nisar Gul to contest him. A total of 112 newly-elected MPAs will take part in voting for the CM slot, and if yesterday's election is any indication, the PTI is expected to easily sweep the victory. Newly elected Speaker KP Assembly Mushtaq Ghani will preside over the proceedings.

The chief minister will be elected through the division of the house system.

Sindh
The Sindh Assembly is also going to elect its chief minister today.

PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari had nominated Murad Ali Shah to reprise his role, and while the overall number of PPP's seats in the Sindh Assembly has gone down from 91 in 2013 to 74 this time around, it is still enough for Shah to secure another term in office.

With 17 women and five minority seats, the PPP has around 97 MPAs in the house which requires 85 seats to form a government without anyone else’s support.

With 30 seats, PTI stands second followed by the MQM-P (21), GDA (13), Tehreek-i-Labbaik Pakistan (three) and Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (one).

Balochistan
The Balochistan Assembly is going to elect its speaker and deputy speaker today.

The Balochistan Awami Party (BAP) looks all set to clinch the slot of the speaker of the Balochistan Assembly. It has nominated former chief minister Mir Abdul Quddus Bizenjo as its candidate for the post.

Sardar Babar Khan Musakhel is the consensus candidate of BAP, Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf, Awami National Party, Hazara Democratic Party, BNP-Awami and Jamhoori Watan Party for the office of deputy speaker and is likely to win the election.

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