Peshawar:
Jailed Pakistani independent candidates Babar Saleem Swati and Suriya Bibi of former Prime Minister Imran Khan took oath as Speaker and Deputy Speaker of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Provincial Assembly on Thursday.
Swati, 62, who was elected from the PK-37 Mansehra-II constituency in the provincial polls on February 8, secured 89 votes against 17 of Pakistan People's Party candidate Ehsan Ullah Khan.
Similarly, Suriya Bibi, 40, who won from the PK-1 seat of Chitral, polled 87 votes in the election and won the vice-chairman seat.
Suriya is the first woman to be elected to a general seat in the history of Chitral after securing 18,914 votes against Shakeel Ahmed of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F), who could poll only 10,533 votes.
Outgoing speaker Mushtaq Ghani took the oath of office as the new custodian of the house.
Chief Minister-designate Ali Amin Gandapur will take oath of House leader in the KPK meeting on Friday.
The swearing-in ceremony of the chairman and vice chairman took place a day after the newly elected lawmakers of the KPK Assembly were sworn in on Wednesday.
The KPK assembly has a total strength of 145 members, including 10 women and four minorities elected on the basis of reserved seats.
The allocation of the reserved seats has not been communicated as the matter is currently being heard by the Election Commission of Pakistan.
In the February 8 elections, Khan's PTI-backed independent candidates won a clear majority in the 90-seat provincial legislature, forming the third consecutive solo government in the restive province.
The PTI-backed independent candidates have joined the Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC) to receive its share of reserved seats for women and minorities in the national and provincial parliaments.
The SIC is an alliance of Islamic political and religious parties in the Muslim-majority country, representing followers of the school of Sunni Islam.
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