Hamid Speaker, Shawkat Ali deputy...............

Veteran no-nonsense parliamentarian Abdul Hamid became the new Speaker and retired colonel Shawkat Ali Deputy Speaker.

The ninth Parliament unanimously elected him for the top office on a formal proposal from chief whip Abdus Shahid, seconded by whip Shagufta Yasmin Emily.

Ali's election was also unanimous, on a proposal from whip A SM Feroj. Another whip Mujibul Huq supported him.

Opposition BNP lawmakers were silent as the two were voted in.

The outgoing Speaker adjourned the House at 3.44pm to allow oath-taking of the two new presiding officers by the President.

President Iajuddin Ahmed, who had arrived at the parliament building at around 2.30 pm, administered the oaths at around 4.15pm at his seventh floor office.

After the swearing in, Abdul Hamid went to the speaker's office. Outgoing speaker Sircar stood up from the Speaker's chair and requested Hamid to sit on.

Hamid had earlier been named by the Awami League Parliamentary Party (ALPP) to be new Speaker and Ali to be his deputy, a party spokesman told us.

After an ALPP meet ending just before the first sitting of the new parliament, Syed Ashraful Islam only confirmed widespread speculations about the two names.

"The ALPP has also recommended amending the constitution to create a post of deputy speaker which will be given to the main opposition BNP," he said.

Leader of the House Sheikh Hasina presided over Sunday's meeting of the ALPP, which started at 2.15 pm, at the ninth floor of the Jatiya Sangsad Bhaban.

Almost all of the AL MPs attended the ALPP, according to party sources.

Hamid's decades in politics

Hamid, who was deputy leader of the opposition in the last parliament, was also speaker in the seventh parliament when the Awami League was in government.

A lawyer by profession, Hamid has been involved with Awami League since the 1960s.

He was elected member of the Pakistan National Assembly in 1970 at the age of 25. He was elected deputy speaker of the 7th parliament when Awami League went into power in 1996.

After Speaker Humayun Rashid Chowdhury's death, Hamid succeeded him.

Hamid was also elected MP in 1973, 1986, 1991, 1996, 2001 and 2008 general elections on his party tickets.

BNP deputy speaker

Since the Awami League did not offer the post of deputy speaker to the opposition at the first sitting, the government, if it wants to keep its pre-polls pledge, will have to amend the article 74 of the constitution to create a second post .

The BNP had hinted that it would accept the post of deputy speaker only if it was offered on the first day.

Opposition BNP MPs entered the House wearing black badges on Sunday.

There was some question in preceding days as to whether BNP lawmakers would join the inaugural sitting of parliament since the day coincides with the introduction of one-party rule in 1975, they said.

"This day has been etched into the memory of the people as a 'black day'," BNP secretary general Khandaker Delwar Hossain had said. "It is not clear why that day has been set for the first sitting of parliament."