New Delhi: Pakistan got its first woman Speaker on Wednesday. Fehmida Mirza, Pakistan Peoples Party's (PPP) nominee for the Speaker's post, received 249 votes in the 342- member National Assembly in her favour.
Mirza was up against Muhammad Israr Tarin, the candidate for a group of pro-presidential parties.
The Opposition coalition has approximately 225 seats in the National Assembly, enough to elect the Speaker, and just short of a two-thirds majority needed to impeach Musharraf.
According to reports Pakistan may even be looking towards a female Prime Minister with rumours that Asif Ali Zardari is now planning to nominate his sister Azra Pacheco to the post.
Fehmida Mirza, 51, a medical doctor from a political family from Sindh province, is expected to easily defeat the opposition candidate.
"I am honoured, I am humbled and happy," Mirza said shortly before voting began.
''It is one thing to sit in opposition but this chair carries big responsibility... I am feeling that responsibility today and will, God willing, come up to expectations," she said.
The Lower House, meeting for its second session since members were sworn in on Monday, was also expected to elect PPP Member of Parliament Faisal Karim Kundi as Deputy Speaker.
Mirza's husband is a former PPP Member of Parliament and a close friend of Asif Ali Zardari, Bhutto's widower who became the co-chairman of her party after she was killed in a suicide attack on December 27.
The PPP won the most seats in the February 18 general election but not enough to rule alone. It has agreed to form a coalition with the party of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, which came second, and two smaller parties.
The former ruling party that backs the unpopular Musharraf came a poor third in the polls.
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