The freshly elected members of the 18th Punjab Assembly will take their oaths tomorrow at the provincial legislature’s maiden session.
Out of the five assemblies that went to the polls on February 8, the Punjab Assembly is the first to hold its inaugural session, which is scheduled for 10 a.m. on Friday.
Punjab Governor Baligh Ur Rehman has issued a notification on this matter. Speaker Sibtain Khan will deliver the oath to the newly elected members.
The announcement of the assembly’s session comes a day after a parliamentary meeting of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) elected members was held at Jati Umra in Lahore.
According to party sources, 218 members attended the meeting, including independent members and PMLN MPAs.
According to sources, 137 victorious PMLN candidates, 58 women nominated for particular seats, and more than 22 independent members who joined the PMLN following the elections were present.
It is worth noting that 186 members were required to form the government.
Maryam Nawaz will be one of the newly elected MPs to take their seats in the provincial legislature. She has also been named as the party’s candidate for chief minister following her victories in both the national and provincial parliament seats — NA-119 and PP-159 — on February 8.
During the meeting on Wednesday, Maryam promised to serve the province in a way that would “set records” for exemplary governance in the nation.
In a media interview, the CM-hopeful revealed her strategy for Punjab, saying, “A new era will usher in Punjab.” I congratulate the PML-N for their victory [and majority in the Punjab Assembly].
If elected, Maryam will become Pakistan’s first female chief minister in more than seven decades. She will take over a province with a population of over 127 million people, accounting for more than half of Pakistan’s total population.
“This was a difficult election, and I thank the people of Punjab for electing us with a strong majority. We will create service records; I haven’t rested since the election results, and we will all have to work together,” she said.
Maryam, who is the PML-N’s senior vice-president and main organiser, said it was a “huge honour” to be nominated as Punjab’s first chief minister and dedicated it to the “daughters, mothers, sisters, and reserved seats’ women”.
The CM nominee stated that the province faces “major challenges” in the health-care and education sectors, as well as municipal government. “There’s also a huge issue of sewage, clean water in rural areas.”
Maryam reminded the newly elected MPAs that in order to ensure development in each of Punjab’s 297 constituencies, they would have to treat them as 297 districts.
