Lower house to meet next week

The National Assembly or lower house of Pakistan will be summoned for its first session of 2020 next week and the sitting will be held on January 6.

It is likely that the Senate will be summoned for January 7 and both the houses will continue their sessions separately for about two weeks. No official announcement has been made yet about it.

Parliamentary sources said that the government will lay the NAB second amendment ordinance of 2019 in the National Assembly on the first day of its sitting and it will be referred to the standing committee concerned.

The ordinance will stay enforced till the last week of April next year. The government will have to get it passed by the National

Assembly and the Senate till then.

The ordinance will stay as part of the statuary book since the ordinance lapses in 120 days. The sources pointed out that the opposition was determined to oppose the ordinance tooth and nail.

It has comfortable majority in the Senate and in case it decides to pass a resolution for rejection of the ordinance, it wouldn’t stay from the day of the rejection from the Senate.

The controversy hovering around the ordinance will have adverse impact on the ambience of two houses of Parliament, the sources reminded.

The ordinances which were passed in the last session of the National Assembly early this month will be withdrawn through a resolution since the chair got them passed in undue haste disregarding the relevant rules and regulations.

The ordinances will be reintroduced in the house and they will be referred to the committees concerned as per rules.

The sources said the government had not put up any substantial agenda for the upcoming sitting of the either houses of Parliament, but the government would like to initiate debate on the presidential address delivered in September.

The House will pass a vote of thanks to the president for his address as part of formality. The sources reminded that the National Assembly had completed 33 working days session in four months of parliamentary calendar ever since the parliamentary year was started.

It will have to complete 130 days sitting for completion of mandatory days. It is expected that the National Assembly will complete its constitutional obligation with regard to the minimum days sitting but the Senate will find it difficult to complete the tally, the sources added.