Joint parliament session rescheduled third time

ISLAMABAD: National Assembly Speaker Raja Pervaiz Ashraf has rescheduled a joint session of Parliament for the third time in two months preventing President Arif Alvi’s address.

According to a notification issued by the National Assembly Secretariat on Friday, the joint sitting of two houses of Parliament will be held on October 20 instead of September 22. Previously, the joint session of two houses of Parliament was to be held on August 22 but was rescheduled for September 22.

The NA Speaker changed the date of the joint session by using his powers under Rule 4 of Joint Sitting Rules 1973. Earlier, the joint session of Parliament was to be held on July 22.

However, the Speaker on July 18 rescheduled the session for August 22. President Arif Alvi was supposed to address the joint session to mark the start of the new parliamentary year of the National Assembly.

The National Assembly Secretariat, however, did not give reasons for the third time change in the date of the joint sitting. Due to the delay in the Presidential address to joint sitting, the National Assembly Secretariat is yet to announce the tentative calendar of the last parliamentary year of the National Assembly. The last session of the 4th parliamentary year was prorogued on 15th of last month.