Fahmida Mirza has been nominated for the office of the speaker of the National Assembly by the Pakistan slain leader Benazir Bhutto and PML-N Party of former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and their allies.
Fahmida comes from a political family of southern Sindh, the stronghold of Peoples party.
The 51-year-old Mirza, who elected as Member National assembly on February 18 for the third consecutive term from Badin district, will be the first woman speaker of the National Assembly.
She is wife of Zulfiqar Mirza, who is a close aide of PPP co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari and was also elected member of provincial assembly in Sindh.
She is an agriculturist and businesswoman by profession, although she is a medical graduate.
Fahmida Mirza has been winning her parliamentary seat continuously since 1997.
"I will remain non-partisan and will provide a level playing field to the treasury and opposition members," Fahmida Mirza told reporters after filing nomination papers with the Secretary of the National Assembly.
"A woman could be a best speaker of the National Assembly as this slot demands tolerance," she added.
The opposition PML-Q party and allied parties have fielded Israr Tareen, a lawmaker from southwestern Balochistan province, as candidate to challenge Fahmida Mirza.
Earlier, Begum Ashraf Abbasi was the only woman who had held the office of deputy speaker twice - once in second tenure of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto during 1977 and second time in the first government of late Benazir Bhutto from 1988-90.
The opposition fielded Faisal Karim Kundi, for the office of deputy speaker.
Kundi, belongs to Dera Ismail Khan in North West frontier province, who had defeated religious leader Maulana Fazl-ur-Rahman, the chief of Jamiat ulema-e-Islam (F).
(http://www2.irna.ir/en/news/view/menu-239/0803195934084943.htm)
