16th Pakistan National Assembly comes into effect, new lawmakers sworn in

The 16th National Assembly of Pakistan came into effect on Thursday (Feb 29) with newly-elected members being sworn in. According to Pakistani media, newly-elected lawmakers took oath at the session which was chaired by Speaker Raja Pervaiz Ashraf. Thedevelopments comes as the convening session, which is required to be held on the 21st day after the elections, was surrounded by uncertainty after President Arif Alvi stressed the allocation of reserved seats before the session, a report by Geo News said.

President Alvi had convened the inaugural session at 10 am Thursday. "The President has convened the National Assembly session expecting that the reserved seats would be allocated to the Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC) according to their strength in the House," an official statement said.

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The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has allocated reserved seats to political parties, Geo News reported. However, it has not awarded reserved quota to the Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC) after Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI)-backed independent candidates joined the party.

> All 284 members of the assemblysigned the role of member register on Thursday after taking oath.

>Thursday's inaugural session started after an hour's delay with the recitation of the Quran.

>According to a report by the Dawn, slogans were raised in the assembly by PTI and Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) lawmakers. The report said that PML-N leaders raised slogans of “Ghari-chor” (wristwatch thief) in a reference to the Toshakhana case against Imran Khan while PTI leaders said "Who will save Pakistan? Imran Khan...Imran Khan."

>PML-M supremo Nawaz Sharif and the party's prime ministerial nominee Shehbaz Sharif entered the assembly and were greeted with slogans supporting and opposing them. Both the Sharif brothers took oath.

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>Before the inaugural session began, members of the US Congress called on the Joe Biden administration to withhold recognition of a new government in Pakistan until an investigation determined that the February 8 general elections were not rigged.

>In a post on X, Congressman Greg Casar shared a letter signed by him and 30 other lawmakers. The letter urged Pakistani authorities to release anyone who had been detained for engaging in political speech and activity and tasked the US State Department officials in Pakistan with gathering information about such cases and advocating for their release.

>The letter also said that it should be made clear to Islamabad that American law "provides for accountability for acts that violate human rights, undermine democracy, or further corruption, including the potential for military and other cooperation to be halted."

(With inputs from agencies)