MIRPUR (AJK)-PML-N AJK Central Secretary General Shah Ghulam Qadir was Saturday elected as the 12th Speaker of AJK Legislative Assembly for next five-year constitutional term, with 39 votes in the 49-seat House.
Similarly Sardar Farooq Ahmed Tahir was elected as Deputy Speaker of the Legislative Assembly.
Earlier, the newly elected members of AJK Legislative Assembly including 32 from the PML-N, three each from PPP, Muslim conference and two from PTI have taken oath The special session was held in Muzaffarabad with the outgoing Speaker Sardar Ghulam Sadiq Khan in the chair
Later, election for the Speaker and Deputy Speaker was held.
PML-N's Shah Ghulam Qadir was elected as the Speaker of the legisbagged 39 votes against only three votes secured by Malik Muhammad Nawaz, the candidate of Muslim Conference and Aamir Abdul Ghaffar Lone of the PPP AJK who got four votes.
Later, Shah Ghulam Qadir took the oath as 12th Speaker of the AJK Legislative Assembly. The outgoing Speaker Sardar Ghulam Sadiq Khan administered oath to the newly-elected Speaker.
The newly-elected Deputy Speaker of the AJK LA Sardar Farooq Ahmed Tahir also took oath of his office. The newly-elected speaker administered oath to the Deputy Speaker.
The newly-elected members of the AJK Legislative Assembly from both treasury and opposition benches felicitated the new Speaker and Deputy Speaker on assuming their respective offices.
In his inaugural address, the speaker expressed his profound gratitude to the members of AJK Legislative Assembly for electing him as speaker.
Qadir said that he would run the house with the cooperation and assistance of all the assembly members. He said that all members of the assembly are equally respectable for him.
Shah Ghulam Qadir said that all rules and regulations would be followed for the better functioning of the newly-elected government.
It is to be noted that Shah Ghulam Qadir had been speaker of the AJK Legislative Assembly during the past regime.