Islamabad:

Pakistan’s new parliament elected a speaker on Friday, despite protests three weeks after the election by lawmakers loyal to jailed former Prime Minister Imran Khan who claimed it was blatantly rigged.

Sardar Ayaz Sadiq of the military-backed Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) was elected by his party’s MPs and a handful of others in a coalition deal The deal left Imran Khan’s followers out of power.

The 336-seat National Assembly convened yesterday for the first time since Pakistan’s February 8 elections, with the coalition scheduled to vote on Sunday to elect Shehbaz Sharif of the Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N) ) became prime minister.

As lawmakers prepared to elect Sadiq, lawmakers backed by Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party denounced the outgoing speaker, who was responsible for overseeing the vote.

“How can intruders participate in the polls?” asked Omar Ayub Khan, a senior PTI politician. “How can you rule out Imran Khan’s party, which has a real mandate?”

The PTI lawmaker raised his fist during the vote and shouted: “Who will save Pakistan?”

“Imran Khan!” replied a group of PTI-backed MPs at the debate.

PTI’s speakership candidate lost with 91 votes to Sadiq’s 199 votes.

The PTI claims last month’s election was rigged to prevent them from achieving a landslide victory, citing significant delays in results and mobile internet outages on polling day as evidence.

On the eve of the election, Imran Khan was jailed on charges of treason, corruption and illegal marriage, barred from holding public office and sentenced to a lengthy prison term.

The PTI was the target of a campaign of arrests and scrutiny that analysts said was orchestrated by the powerful military establishment.

Party members were forced to run as independents.

They fought tooth and nail to gain more seats than any other party but fell far short of the majority needed to form a government.

This clears the way for the Pakistan Muslim League to form an alliance with the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), led by former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto’s family, and a handful of smaller parties.

Sadiq, who will be responsible for the new government’s legislative agenda, is also the spokesman for the similar Muslim League-North Alliance and PPP alliance that ousted Imran Khan in 2022 and brought Sharif to power for the first time.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)