ISLAMABAD, Aug 18: The government is facing serious difficulties in meeting the requirements of Article 54 of the Constitution under which the National Assembly must remain in session for a minimum of 130 days in a parliamentary calender year.

At present, only 88 days are left for the completion of the parliamentary year, which began on November 15, 2002, and the National Assembly has so far met for only 47 days. This means the lower house is required to be in session for 83 days in the next 88 days to meet the constitutional requirement. And if the government failed to convene the NA session by Aug 24, then it would certainly be violating an important article of the Constitution.

The opposition parties have already started accusing the government of defying the Constitution by not summoning the assembly session.

The government has been trying to convene the National Assembly session as early as possible, but it is afraid of the opposition’s protest against the Legal Framework Order (LFO) and the president’s uniform.

The Alliance for Restoration of Democracy (ARD) has already announced that it would not allow the government to run the lower house according to its agenda. Due to the persistent deadlock in the talks on the LFO, the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA) has also announced that it would continue its protest inside parliament.

Chaudhry Aitezaz Ahsan of the PPP, while talking to Dawn, termed it a “severe indictment” of the government. He said the government derived its legitimacy from parliament and “if it cannot summon the house for a minimum required period, then it must resign”.

Mr Ahsan said it seemed that the government had lost confidence in parliament and, therefore, it had no right to stay in power.

When asked if it was the opposition’s attitude which had prevented the government from summoning the assembly session, the PPP MNA said it was the responsibility of the government to create a congenial climate and develop good relations with the opposition if it wanted to run the house smoothly.

He was of the view that the opposition had shown maximum flexibility and wanted that the government be run in accordance with the Constitution, but it was due to the government’s non-serious attitude that the country was facing this crisis.

Pakistan Muslim League-N acting president Makhdoom Javed Hashmi told Dawn that out of the nine sessions held so far, six were requisitioned by the opposition. These sessions also included the sessions held for oath-taking of the members, elections of the speaker and the prime minister and no-confidence motions against the speaker and the deputy speaker.

Mr Hashmi said it showed that the government had no legislative agenda. The PML-N leader claimed that the MMA had assured the ARD leadership that it would continue its protest inside parliament with other opposition parties. He said the ARD would sign the requisition notice, if requested by the MMA.

ARD parliamentary group’s secretary Izhar Amrohvi said that it was a “deliberate violation” which amounted to “subversion of the Constitution”.

He said in the original Constitution, the assembly was required to be in session for 150 days, but the Junejo government, through the 10th Amendment, reduced it to 130 days.