Summary moved to convene NA session: Ali Zafar

ISLAMABAD: Federal Information Minister Syed Ali Zafar says that summery has been moved to convene the inaugural session of the newly-elected National Assembly between August 12 to 14.

Talking to media outside the Supreme Court, he said presently Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) was in the process of completing legal process before summoning the session.

“Under the Constitution, it was obligatory to summon first session of the National Assembly within 21 days after elections and it was imperative to fulfill this constitutional obligation by August 15,” he said.

Zafar said in the inaugural session, first of all newly-elected members would take oath, then new speaker and deputy speaker would be elected followed by election of the prime minister and this process may take three to four days.

Elaborating, he said process of nomination papers, scrutiny of nomination papers and the election for the three posts would be time consuming.

He said as soon as the newly-elected prime minister would take oath, the job of the caretakers would be over and power would be transferred to the newly elected government under the law and the Constitution.

Ali Zafar said it was desire of the caretaker Prime Minister Nasir-ul-Mulk that the newly elected prime minister could have attended the August 14, ceremony along with the president but completion of the election process was the hurdle.

Replying to a question, he said political statements were coming about the fairness of the elections.

He said the ECP had asked the caretaker government for holding inquiry into the failure of RTS and the government was looking into it.

He said election had been held and it was time now to look forward.

One should wait the result of the inquiry to be conducted on the failure of the RTS before commenting on it.

He said recounting was allowed under the election laws and there was no harm in recounting votes if it was as per law as this removes doubts in the minds of the people.

About power shortage, he said long term planning was required to overcome this problem and some difficult decisions would have to be made in this connection.