President Arif Alvi may not administer oath to new Pakistan prime minister

Islamabad: Pakistan President Arif Alvi may not be administering the oath to the new prime minister as his successor will be elected before the next federal government is formed, a media report said on Tuesday.

The News International reported that the oath of the members of the newly-elected National Assembly could be held on February 26, three days before the deadline for summoning the House for its inaugural session, while a similar exercise would be conducted the following day.

The members, who have been elected for both houses, would no longer be members of the provincial assembly if they take oath in the national legislature.

Well-placed parliamentary sources told the newspaper that the election of the Senate’s 53 members, chairman/deputy chairman, and consequently election of the president of the country has to be held before March 8, the time-space will be limited for conducting the polls for the slot of the president.

The sources said if the election of the president is held a week earlier, a new president will administer the oath to the new prime minister instead of incumbent Alvi.

The sources pointed out that once the members of the national and provincial assemblies take the oath, they would be eligible to cast their votes for the election of the Senate members.

The sources have given the schedule for the whole process and told the paper that the members of the assemblies will have to submit their expense details by February 18 and notification of the elected members will be made by February 22.

The session in the case of the National Assembly could be held on February 26, while the provincial assemblies could be summoned on the same or the following day. Once the oath is administered, they would become regular members of their respective houses. The process of Senate election will be initiated and that will take four days.

As soon as the Senate oath will culminate, the schedule for the president’s election will be started. On the other hand, a five-day schedule for the election of speakers, deputy speakers, and prime minister in case of the National Assembly and chief ministers in the provincial assemblies will commence, the sources said.

President Arif Alvi had declined to administer the oath to Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on August 14, 2022, and the Chairman Senate had to perform the function after the National Assembly passed a no-confidence motion against then prime minister Imran Khan.

Alvi, who avoided it under the pretext of his health, was present in the presidency during the oath-taking and he watched it through a CCTV system of the tall building.

Alvi, 74, was a senior member of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party before former prime minister Khan made him the country's President in 2018.

The sources reminded that the caretaker prime minister and cabinet members will stay in their respective offices till the moment a new prime minister takes oath, according to the paper.