Convening of NA session: 58 more sittings needed to meet constitutional requirement

ISLAMABAD: The National Assembly faces the challenge of meeting for another 58 working days up to Aug 31 to fulfill the mandatory constitutional requirement of having 130 sittings in a parliamentary year, when COVID-19 is ravaging.

“The issue was raised in the deliberations of the bipartisan committee headed by Federal Minister Syed Fakhar Imam on Wednesday and April 21,” a participant told The News. “It was urged that the National Assembly session should be called without further delay.” The committee was constituted by Speaker Asad Qaiser to work out the mode of session, physical or virtual, in view of the coronavirus pandemic.

The participants said that the requirement of essential sittings can be met if the session is convened immediately but there are are still four months to go before the Aug 31 deadline. He said the committee will sort out modalities of the physical sittings of the National Assembly and the idea of virtual session was found to be impractical. It was discussed that the parliamentary leaders can nominate a limited number of members from their party to attend the sittings as exemplified in other parliaments. There is a seating capacity of 400 members in the chamber and MPs can also sit in galleries to maintain social distancing. They said that it was possible that vote of one member belonging to a parliamentary party may be treated as two while voting on a legislation or any other issue. He said it could be agreed that no member would point out a lack of quorum.

The opposition parties rejected the virtual sessions and said they did not want to allow any bad precedents to be set. Holding virtual sittings amounts to locking down Parliament, they claimed. It was also noted in the meeting that the technical wherewithal is not presently available to organise virtual sessions.

There is also a pressing need to take measures for safety and security of members and staff working in Parliament before holding the sessions. It was further pointed out that virtual session can’t be held without amendments to the Constitution and rules of procedure and conduct of business in the National Assembly.

Another member of the committee said that the opposition members present in the committee meeting were forthcoming to cooperate in deciding the rules of the game for the physical sessions by restricting the participation of the members. He said that they are asking the government not to delay convening of the session so that Parliament is not rendered redundant by the COVID-19.