ISLAMABAD- The MNAs-elect took oath at the inaugural session of 14th National Assembly on Saturday, completing the final phase of the historic transition of the power from one democratic government to another.
National Assembly Speaker Dr Fahmida Mirza administered oath to the members and congratulated them on their election.
Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz President Mian Nawaz Sharif took oath as MNA after 14 years, while nine women and a minority member of his party could not take oath due to delay in issuance of their membership notification by the Election Commission of Pakistan.
Soon after administering oath to the MNAs, the speaker gave schedule for the elections of the speaker and deputy speaker. The candidates can file their nomination papers by Sunday (today) noon while the polling for these slots through secret ballot will be held on Monday (tomorrow) when the house is meeting at 11:00 am.
After the oath, the speaker asked the members to sign the ‘Roll of Members’ in Urdu alphabetic order and later adjourned the session until Monday.
The inaugural session of the 14th National Assembly started two hours late at around 12.00 pm when PML-N President Mian Nawaz Sharif flanked by senior party leaders Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, Khawaja  Asif, Ahsan Iqbal and others entered the house. His supporters sitting in the visitors’ galleries greeted him with slogans.
A couple of minutes after the entry of Mian Nawaz Sharif, the speaker initiated the proceedings with the recitation of the Holy Quran which was followed by the national anthem.
The newly elected members started pouring in at 10.00am and greeted each other.
There is an amalgamation of new and old faces in the 14th assembly that has over one hundred first-time MNAs.
Prominent among those who took oath on Saturday were: PML-N President Mian Nawaz Sharif, Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, who is probably the only MP who has returned to the Lower House of the Parliament for 8th consecutive time, Syed Khursheed Shah, Makhdoom Amin Fahim, former chief minister Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Amir Haider Hoti, another former KPK CM Akram Khan Durrani, chief of Qaumi Watan Party Aftab Ahmad Khan Sherpao, JUI-F leader Moulana Mohammad Khan Sheerani, who gave up his Senate membership for the lower house.
Those who did not turn up to take oath in the inaugural session were: JUI-F Ameer Moulana Fazlur Rehman, PTI Chairman Imran Khan, PTI vice Chairmanship Makhdoom Shah Mahmood Qureshi and independent MNA Jamshed Dasti. All these persons had won elections on more than one National Assembly seats and now they have to decide which seat they want to vacate by June 10. The ECP had issued notification for 333 seats, including reserved seats for women and minorities and out of these 318 MPs took oath.
The PML-N emerged as the single largest party with 186 seats, crossing the magical figure of 172 comfortably. The PPP is the second largest party with 40 seats, the PTI is at third 35, MQM got 23, JUI-F has 14, PML-F 5, while Jamaat-I-Islami and Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party have four seats each.
Qoumi Watan Party, Awami National Party, PML-Z, Awami Muslim League, All Pakistan Muslim League, Awami Jamhoori Ittehad and National Party have one seat each. There are seven independents as well in the house, who did not join any party. Elections in 10 constituencies are either delayed or their results are pending.
Although foolproof security arrangements were made for the session, things turned out to be a complete mess due to bad traffic plan of the Islamabad Traffic Police as there were long queues of vehicles in front of the main entrance of the Parliament House and even Nawaz Sharif got stuck in the traffic jam.
The National Assembly Secretariat management issued passes for the visitors’ galleries beyond capacity due to which the galleries transformed into a fish market. The speaker had to stop the people from sitting in the galleries when the buzz got amplified.