ISLAMABAD, March 9: Caretaker Prime Minister Mohammedmian Soomro will send an advice to President Pervez Musharraf on Monday for summoning the first session of the newly-elected National Assembly.
An official told Dawn that the summary initiated by the Ministry of Law and Parliamentary Affairs had been received by the prime minister’s secretariat on Saturday, but could not be forwarded as the prime minister was not in the capital.
Brushing aside a perception that President Musharraf was deliberately delaying the convening of the session to weaken the parties which had won the election, he said the president could not summon the session at his own in the absence of an advice from the prime minister.
Federal Minister for Law and Parliamentary Affairs Syed Afzal Haider said the law did not provide any timeframe within which the session of the assembly had to be convened.
He, however, said that usually it was done by the president ‘immediately’ after receiving an advice from the prime minister.
He said the ministry was supposed to send a summary for convening the National Assembly session after completion of the process of issuing notifications of elected members of the National Assembly by the Election Commission.
Replying to a question, he said no date had been proposed for summoning the session in the summary, but said it was likely to be summoned any time during the week starting on Monday.
In the first session, the outgoing speaker would administer the oath to newly-elected members according to the rules of procedure and conduct of business of the National Assembly.
Mr Haider said the newly-elected members would take oath under the 1973 Constitution.
