Govt delays mandatory joint parliament sitting
The government has cancelled a joint sitting of parliament for the presidential address on the opposition parties’ request as it coincided with the funeral of former first lady Begum Kulsoom Nawaz.
Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry said it was on the directive of Prime Minister Imran Khan that the government had reversed its decision to convene the planned sessions after the premier came to know about the opposition’s request.
Earlier, President Dr Arif Alvi, on the advice of the government, summoned the joint session of parliament yesterday to address the legislators, and convened sessions of the National Assembly (NA) and the Senate for today, in which Finance Minister Asad Umar was to present the mini-budget for the remaining 10 months of the financial year.
Soon after the summoning of the sessions, the Pakistan Muslim League – Nawaz (PML-N) protested over the government’s move to convene the sittings at a time when the party was in a state of mourning and had already announced suspension of its political activities for three days following the death of Kulsoom Nawaz.
Sources in the PML-N said that the party, through former speaker Ayaz Sadiq, had approached the government leaders and NA Speaker Asad Qaiser with the request to delay the sessions to enable the party legislators to attend them.
Similarly, speaking at a news conference, Jamiat Ulema-eIslam – Fazlur (JUI-F) chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman had also suggested to the government to postpone the joint sitting on the PML-N’s request.
The government had disclosed its plan, at a meeting on Monday of parliamentary leaders presided over by Speaker Asad Qaiser, to convene the joint sitting for Alvi’s mandatory maiden address.
The meeting had been convened by Qaiser to seek the co-operation of the opposition parties to ensure the smooth conduct of proceedings.
However, the opposition parties demanded that the government constitute a parliamentary commission to look into allegations of rigging in the July 25 general elections before convening the joint sitting, if it wanted a smooth sailing in the parliament.
After the meeting, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) ViceChairman and Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi confirmed that the opposition had put the condition of formation of the parliamentary commission into the allegations.
He had stated that the PTI would make a decision on the opposition’s demand in the next few days after discussing it within the party.
Speaking at a news conference in Lahore last week, PML- N president and Opposition Leader in the National Assembly Shehbaz Sharif asked Prime Minister Khan to keep his word and constitute a parliamentary commission into the rigging allegations and recommend steps to prevent a recurrence.
Sharif warned that the opposition alliance would not let the house function smoothly if the commission was not constituted.
Under Article 56(3) of the Constitution, the president is required to address the joint sitting of parliament at the commencement of the parliamentary year.
However, after the news of the death of Kulsoom Nawaz in London on Tuesday night, there was a general impression that the government might not go ahead with its plan.