Tomorrow, the recently elected members of the Punjab Assembly will take oath in during the first session of a legislative group called since the general elections held on February 8.
The session is slated to take place at 10am on Friday.
The announcement about the assembly’s session comes a day after a parliamentary meeting of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz’s (PML-N) elected members took place at Jati Umra in Lahore.
According to party sources, 218 members attended the meeting. This included both independent members and PMLN MPAs, as well as those nominated for particular seats.
Sources said 137 successful candidates of PMLN, 58 women nominated for specific seats and more than 22 independent members, who joined the PMLN after the elections, were present.
It merits a mention that 186 members were required to form the government.
Maryam Nawaz, among the newly elected officials, will be entering the provincial legislature as an elected member. She is also selected as the party’s candidate for the chief minister position after winning seats in both the national (NA-119) and provincial assembly (PP-159) during the February 8 elections.
During the meeting on Wednesday, Maryam pledged to serve the province in a way that would “set records” of good governance in the country.
Revealing her game plan for Punjab in a media talk, the CM-hopeful said: “A new era will usher in Punjab. I congratulate the PML-N for securing victory [and gaining a majority in the Punjab Assembly].”
If voted into power, Maryam will become the first woman to be elected as a chief minister in Pakistan’s seven-decade-plus history. She will take over the province with a population of more than 127 million people, more than half of Pakistan’s population.
“This was a tough election, I thank the people of Punjab for providing us with a clear majority. We will set records of service; I haven’t rested since the election results, all of us will have to work as a team,” she added.
Maryam, who holds the portfolios of PML-N’s senior vice-president and chief organiser, said it was a “huge honour” for her to be nominated as Punjab’s first chief minister and dedicated it to the “daughters, mothers, sisters, and reserved seats’ women”.
The CM nominee said the province faces “major challenges” in the health care and education sectors as well as the local government. “There’s also a huge issue of sewage, clean water in rural areas.”
Maryam informed the recently elected MPAs that they need to consider Punjab’s 297 constituencies as 297 districts to guarantee development in each lawmaker’s area.
