ISLAMABAD, Nov 14: The combined opposition on Tuesday requisitioned the session of the Senate to discuss the Bajaur and Dargai incidents in which 125 people, including 42 army recruits, were killed during an air strike on a seminary and a suicide attack on a military installation.
The requisition notice has been submitted under Article 54(3) read with Article 61 of the Constitution and it carries the signatures of 29 senators belonging to the People's Party Parliamentarians (PPP), the Pakistan Muslim League(N), the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA), the Awami National Party (ANP) and the Pakhtoonkhwa Milli Awami Party (PkMAP).
Senate Chairman Mohammadmian Soomro will have to convene the session of the upper house by November 27 as under the rules, the chairman is bound to call the session within 14 days of the receipt of the requisition notice.
Article 54(3) of the constitution is related to the requisitioning of the National Assembly session, but it is also applicable for the Senate when it is read with Article 61 of the Constitution.
Article 54(3) states: "On a requisition, signed by not less than one-fourth of the total membership of the National Assembly, the speaker shall summon the National Assembly to meet, at such time and place as he thinks fit, within 14 days of the receipt of the requisition; and when the speaker has summoned the Assembly, only he may prorogue it."
Talking to Dawn, parliamentary secretary of the Alliance for the Restoration of Democracy (ARD) Izhar Amrohvi said the opposition had required 25 members to file the requisition notice, but it succeeded to get the signatures of 29 senators despite the fact that several senators were not present in the capital due to no session of the house being held for more than a month.
Giving reasons for requisitioning the session, he said there was no session scheduled for the month of November, according to the tentative plan prepared at the start of the parliamentary year in March.
He said the opposition had requisitioned the Senate fearing that the government might delay its session further in an effort to put the matter in cold storage.
