Pakistan President Dr Arif Alvi has reportedly rejected a move to summon the first session of the newly elected National Assembly session on February 29, according to media reports on Monday.
The president rejected the summary from the caretaker parliamentary affairs ministry and maintained that all reserved seats be allocated before the summoning of the session in which newly-elected members of the National Assembly will take oath, Geo News quoted sources as saying.
Alvi, who is inclined towards the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party, was a senior member of jailed former prime minister Imran Khan’s party before the cricketer-turned-politician made him the country’s President in 2018.
After the president’s denial, National Assembly outgoing Speaker Raja Pervaiz Ashraf decided to convene the session of the lower house of parliament on February 29, the report said.
This decision follows consultations with senior officers and constitutional experts of the National Assembly Secretariat, who reviewed the situation arising from the president’s refusal to sign the summary.
According to constitutional provisions, the meeting of the National Assembly must be convened within 21 days of the elections, and February 29 is the mandated date under Article 91, The Express Tribune newspaper reported.
If the National Assembly meeting proceeds as scheduled on February 29, the schedule for the new speaker will be released on the same day after the oath.
Subsequently, on March 1, papers for the speaker’s election will be submitted, and on March 2, the speaker will be elected, along with the deputy speaker.
The process for submitting nomination papers for the election of the prime minister is slated for March 3, followed by the prime minister’s election in the National Assembly on March 4. The Election Commission of Pakistan will then conduct the election for the president on March 9.
PTI leader Barrister Syed Ali Zafar termed the expected move of the National Assembly (NA) speaker to summon the first session of the lower house “unconstitutional”.
“The President is bound to summon the NA session under the Constitution. The session cannot be summoned when several reserved seats are vacant,” Zafar said while talking to journalists.
He was of the view that the speaker did not have any constitutional power to summon the NA session and any such move would be illegal.
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