ISLAMABAD, April 9: The opposition has decided to submit a requisition notice to the Senate Secretariat on Monday to convene the session of the Upper House, a source told Dawn on Saturday.
The source said 29 opposition members belonging to major opposition parties, including the People’s Party Parliamentarians (PPP), Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA), had signed the requisition notice.
He said the opposition had first decided to submit the requisition notice on March 28, but it was later delayed on the request of the PPP which wanted to submit it after observing the death anniversary of late Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto on April 4.
After submission of the notice, the Senate chairman will be bound to summon the session within 14 days, i.e. by April 25. This will be the first session of the Senate in its third parliamentary year, which started from March 12.
About the agenda for the session, he said the opposition members wanted to have a thorough debate on the situation in Balochistan with reference to the visits of Pakistan Muslim League (PML) President Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain and Senator Mushahid Hussain to Dera Bugti and the incident of March 17 in which over 60 people were killed as a result of a showdown between Bugti tribesmen and Frontier Constabulary (FC) personnel.
He said the opposition also wanted to hold discussions on the issues of price-hike, increase in oil prices and the general law and order situation in the country.