From Aiwan-e-Sadr: A view of Imran’s oath-taking

ISLAMABAD: The swearing-in ceremony of Prime Minister Imran Khan at the President House on Saturday was an impressive show where the guests, mostly belonging to the ruling PTI, cherished the event.

First Lady Bushra Bibi was conspicuous with her maiden appearance donning a silky Arabic Abaya that covered her from head to toe. She was first greeted by the wife of Army Chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa. The army chief and guests sitting in the front row stood up on her arrival, while General Bajwa saluted her out of respect and congratulated her.

At the outset of the oath-taking, President Mamnoon Hussain and Imran Khan stood up for recital of the oath but Imran had to face difficulty finding his reading glasses. He was clad in black sherwani. First he searched it in his sherwani’s pocket but couldn’t find it. He immediately realized that he had placed it in his kurta pocket. At this, he took up his sherwani’s front fall and took out glasses from the right pocket of the kurta. The president in the meantime kept watching Khan with surprise.

Incidentally, as the oath-taking started Imran Khan had to face difficulty in reciting as a follow up, as a tradition and as a constitutional requirement, to what the president was reading.

Khan paused for a moment to take his name. During the whole oath Imran repeated with difficulty almost every line of the text. The word Khatemul Nabbeian (Finality of Prophethood) was wrongly read by the prime minister. At this, the president had to correct him by repeating the words.

Imran Khan pronounced Qiamat (Dooms-day) as Qiadat (Leadership). President Mamnoon Hussain had to repeat it too.

Imran Khan smiled on this error and the guests too were amused. Upon conclusion of the oath, Imran Khan came straight to the first lady and exchanged greetings with her. The services chief present there saluted the new prime minister and hugged him besides felicitating him on assuming the office. The guests later joined the prime minister in the banquet hall where he mingled up with them. He received greetings from the guests where tea, cold water and biscuits were offered to the guests. Biscuits were made at the Presidency.

The Military Secretary to the Prime Minister Brigadier Saleem Cheema who came to the Presidency with the outgoing caretaker prime minister left the tall building with the new prime minister for the Prime Minister House where a guard of honour was presented to the new chief executive of the country by a smartly turned out contingent of the three services. The prime minister appeared a bit casual during the inspection of the guard of honour and his military secretary kept guiding him throughout.