With the political temperature rising, the government on Thursday decided to summon the lower house of parliament on July 21, providing the opposition an opportunity to debate all controversial issues on the floor of the House instead of on the streets.
Major opposition parties are now flexing muscles to take the government head on in the NA session. The Senate session is also likely to be summoned soon, an official told Pakistan Today. Both major opposition parties, the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), had submitted separate requisitions to the Parliament Secretariat for debating issues of national significance.
The PML-N and MQM legislators had submitted requisitions on July 8 and the opposition’s notices to Senate chairman and NA speaker had underlined the need to discuss the recent spate of violence in Karachi, general law and order, non-implementation of superior courts’ orders by the executive and “massive rigging and misuse of federal government resources” in the AJK elections.
Requisitions to convene the NA and Senate sessions submitted with respective secretariats were signed by 104 members of the National Assembly and 33 senators, including members of the Jamaat-e-Islami and breakaway factions of the PML-Q.
Signatures of 87 and 26 members are required to convene National Assembly and Senate sessions, respectively and the speaker of the National Assembly and Senate chairman are bound to call a session within 14 days of the demand.