LAHORE: Punjab assemblies will elect chief ministers today (Monday). Punjab is most likely to elect the first ever female chief minister in Pakistan’s history in form of PMLN’s Maryam Nawaz as voting for the CM slot will take place in Punjab Assembly. While, Sindh Assembly will elect the new leader of the house. Syed Murad Ali Shah, as being the nominee of the PPP for the top office in the province, is sure to win the election.

PMLN parliamentary leader Maryam Nawaz Sharif has a support of 225 MPAs in the House and the Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC) has fielded PTI stalwart from Faisalabad Rana Aftab Ahmad Khan, who enjoys the support of around 103 MPAs.

Still, the SIC MPAs are yet to receive the reserved seats which could take its strength to over 130 MPAs in the House of 371. Nomination papers of both the candidates were filed in the Assembly Secretariat on Sunday.

In behalf of Maryam Nawaz, MPAs Ayub Gadhi, Mian Yawar Zaman, Mian Mujtaba Shuja ur Rehman, Khawaja Imran Nazir submitted the nomination papers whereas SIC candidate Rana Aftab himself filed his nomination papers. Secretary Assembly Chaudhry Amir Habib received the nomination papers.

This is pertinent to mention that never before in the history of Pakistan, a woman CM has been sworn in as the Chief Executive of the province. Maryam Nawaz is also going to be the fourth member of Sharif family and first woman member of her family to get elected as CM if she wins the contest.

Maryam Nawaz got elected from two seats of Lahore including NA 119 and PP-159 and she retained the provincial assembly seat. She contested against the PTI backed candidate Mehr Sharafat and the contest went very close.

Over all, she is the sixth member of Sharif family who has got elected in a general or a by poll. Before her, Nawaz Sharif, Sheheba Sharif, Abbas Sharif, Hamza Shehbaz and Begum Kalsoom Nawaz has got elected from Lahore.

The candidate of SIC Rana Aftab Ahmad Khan is also a seasoned politician who served as PPP MPA for three terms in 1988, 1993 and 2002. He joined PTI in 2013. Rana Aftab Ahmad won the 2024 general election and got elected as MPA for fourth term.

Meanwhile, the PMLN has started finalizing the names of her cabinet. Party sources said that it was decided that the provincial cabinet will be constituted in a phased manner and for the first phase some names were under discussion. They said the provincial cabinet of Maryam Nawaz will also contain ministers from allied parties of the PMLN.

Sources said in the first phase, 15 to 20 ministers were expected to be made from PMLN and two each from PPP and Q-League, and one from IPP.

The names under discussion included PMLN leaders Maryam Aurangzeb, Azma Bukhari, Tahir Sindhu, Mian Mujtaba Shujaur Rahman, Khawaja Salman Rafiq, Bilal Yasin, Khawaja Imran Nazir, Rukhsana Kausar, Manshaullah Butt, Sardar Sher Ali Gurchani, Kazim Ali Pirzada, Colonel retired Muhammad Ayub Khan Gadhi, Malik Asif Bhai, Akhtar Bosal, Rahila Khadim Hussain, Mian Yawar Zaman, Fida Hussain Watto, Tanveer Aslam Malik, Malik Asad Khokhar, Farrukh Ali Javed and Sheikh Salman Naeem.