President to address joint sitting of both Houses on Thursday

ISLAMABAD: President Dr Arif Alvi will address the joint sitting of both the Houses of Parliament on September 13 to kick off the first Parliamentary year of the National Assembly while the first formal NA session will be started from September 14.

These decisions were taken in the meeting of National Assembly Speaker Asad Qaiser with leaders of the parliamentary parties in the National Assembly here on Monday in which the consultations were held on the matters of the formation of Standing committees of the National Assembly, convening of joint sitting of both the Houses of Parliament for Presidential address and preparation of yearly schedule of the National Assembly sessions.

It was decided in the meeting that the previous formula of the chairmanship of the standing committees would be continue and under the formula the PTI dominated treasury benches will get the chairmanship of 17 standing committees while opposition benches 16 that include 9 for the PML-N, 7 to PPP and 01 to MMA.

The process of the elections of the standing committeeswould be started in the upcoming session of the National Assembly that was agreed to be convened on September 14.

It was agreed in the meeting that members of the National Assembly will send their names for the standing committees of their choices to the National Assembly secretariat so that the process of the standing committee be finalised.

It was agreed that the past tradition of chairmanship of the Public Accounts Committee to be given to the Opposition. However, according to sources, Opposition leader Shahbaz Sharif is not interested in the chairmanship of the Public Account Committee and instead of it, he will nominate someone from the opposition to lead the Public Accounts Committee.

The opposition has shortlisted the names of ex-Speaker National Assembly, Sardar Ayaz Sadiq, Pervez Malik and Syed Khursheed Shah, for the chairmanship of the Public Accounts Committee.

However, the opposition leader in the National Assembly Shahbaz Sharif will have a final say to select who will lead the Public Accounts Committee, a parliamentary accountability forum. While speaking in the meeting, NA Speaker Asad Qaisar, the democratic institutions in the country strengthen with the continuation of the democracy. “The people have sent us in this house to represent them and worker for their betterment and now its our job to run the democratic system in the country to put the country on the path of the development and prosperity,” he said. The speaker said the formation of the standing committees of the National Assembly is on top priority, and he will consult all the parliamentary parties in this regard.

He said the past traditions of the National Assembly would be followed for the formation of the standing committees of the National Assembly. The meeting was chaired by NA Speaker Asad Qaiser and attended by Deputy Speaker Qasim Suri, Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi, Defense Minister Pervez khattak, Finance Minister Asad Umer, Minister for Human Rights Dr Shireen Mazari, Malik Amir Dogar and from the opposition Sardar Ayaz Sadiq and Rana Tanveer Hussain from PML-N, Syed Naveed Qamar and Ghulam Mustafa Shah from PPP and Maulana Asad Mehmood of MMA.