October 28, 2002	Monday	Sha’aban 21,1423

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ISLAMABAD, Oct 27: President Pervez Musharraf is likely to convene the first session of the newly-elected National Assembly early next month, political sources said on Sunday.

“The oath-taking by legislators will be on Nov 5, followed by elections to the offices of speaker and deputy speaker next day,” a source close to the government told AFP.

He said the prime minister would be elected on Nov 7 with a show of hands.

Pakistan held its first general elections since a 1999 military coup on Oct 10, but the convening of parliament has repeatedly been delayed as parties haggled over who will form the next government and by court orders on the results.

Law Minister Khalid Ranjha told the news agency that the session would be convened early next month but he would not give a firm date.

“The election commission will have to finalise results on the 70 reserved seats for women and minorities and announce a schedule before the government can announce any firm date for the first session of the assembly,” he told AFP.

“It is up to the election commission (EC) to do their job, there will be no delay from the government side,” said Ranjha, who had applied for a Senate ticket from the pro-government PML(Q).

The EC officials said they had been hampered by a series of court decrees barring them from announcing the results.

The Lahore High Court was the first one to have stopped the Commission from announcing the results on Oct 24, but withdrew the bar the very next day after the Commission agreed to announce results on three contentious seats.

On Friday the Sindh High Court took up a similar case. The case is to come up for a hearing on 29th.

“Once that is cleared and if there are no further bars from any other high court, the results will be announced,” Commission spokesman Ghazni Khan said.

A senior government official said the government would this week spell out the dates for the assembly session and the schedule for prime minister’s elections.

PARTIES HAGGLING: More than two weeks after general elections yielded a hung parliament, key political parties are still haggling over the make-up of a coalition government and who should lead it, adds Reuters.

The mainstream Pakistan People’s Party and the pro-military Pakistan Muslim League (Q) rivals that won a combined 139 of the 272 seats contested in the elections, said they were working to find a compromise solution.

“I think we politicians should compromise as soon as possible so that we can see our political process back on track and democracy flourishing in our country,” PML-Q president Mian Azhar told Reuters by telephone from his headquarters in Lahore.

Leaders of both political parties have already met each other as well as with leaders of the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA), a coalition of six right-wing religious parties strongly opposed to western influence in Pakistan, where the military government has been a key ally in the US-led war on terrorism.