ISLAMABAD, March 11: President Pervez Musharraf on Tuesday summoned the National Assembly session on Monday, March 17, allowing more time for political squabbles to fester among his political foes about the shape of the new government.
The president took only a day to agree to the advice sent by caretaker Prime Minister Mohammedmian Soomro on Monday for summoning the new lower house, but he ignored the election-winners’ call for an immediate session.
Monday’s session, which a National Assembly secretariat announcement said would begin at 11am, would be devoted to swearing-in of the newly-elected lawmakers by the previous assembly’s Speaker Chaudhry Amir Hussain. It would mark the beginning of the five-year term of a house dominated by former opposition parties committed to clipping the presidency’s sweeping powers.
Although it was not announced, a parliamentary source said that the house was likely to elect on the following day its speaker and deputy speaker, both of whom should be from the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) under a coalition accord reached a few days ago.
The source said there could be a break of a day or two before the house would elect a PPP member to be the next prime minister.
The issue, which has taken on all the aspects of a full-blown controversy, is likely to hang on for some more days.
Both the Pakistan People’s Party and PML-N and their allies have been calling for an early session of the new National Assembly, voicing fears the president could use the delay for political manipulations.
But political observers said a politically-isolated president, after a crushing defeat of his supporters in the Feb 18 elections, could hardly change the course of events.
However, President Musharraf is likely to face the most serious challenge to his authority as a result of a joint pledge made by the PPP and PML-N on Sunday to get 60 judges deposed under his controversial Nov 3, 2007 emergency rule reinstated through a resolution that is likely to be passed by the National Assembly within 30 days of the formation of the new government.
