Joint session likely to be reconvened next week

ISLAMABAD: The joint sitting of the two houses of Parliament, called off on Wednesday, could be reconvened by the government next week.

Well-placed political sources told The News on Friday that by summoning the joint sitting, the government wanted to control the embarrassment it suffered after postponing the joint session a day before it was scheduled.

The government’s allies, PMLQ, MQM Pakistan, GDA, and Balochistan Awami Party, were reported to have serious reservations about the functioning of the government and none of them assured the ruling party of voting for the government bills in the joint sitting.

The leadership of the ruling party asked its allies to express their point of view, about the bills, by Monday so that a decision could be taken about summoning of the joint sitting next week.

In case the allies do not give assurances, the government will shelve the idea of legislating at its own. However, the government will urge the opposition to bring the bills of its choice.

Currently, stalemate is prevailing and the government is in catch-22 like situation. The government intends to summon a joint sitting to ward off the impression that the government called off the joint-session after losing majority in any of the houses of the Parliament. The legislation could be undertaken through majority votes of the members present in the house.

Sensing the government intentions, the opposition parties have asked their parliamentarians to stay in the federal capital from Monday noon onwards. The government could display an element of surprise by summoning the joint sitting but the opposition has made plans to counter any such move of the government, the sources said.

The steering committee of the opposition held an important lengthy meeting in the Parliament House on Friday to work out the strategy to deal with the government’s designs and evolve its own line of action to oust the incumbent government.

The state minister for parliamentary affairs was approached by this scribe for his comments on possible development but he was unavailable for it.