ISLAMABAD: The government plans to convene sessions of the two houses of parliament in the third week of the current month.

Sources told Dawn that the government wanted to convene the sessions soon after Eidul Azha but had to delay it because of foreign visits of National Assembly Speaker Sardar Ayaz Sadiq and Senate Chairman Nayyar Bokhari.

Mr Ayaz Sadiq went to Cameroon on Sunday morning to attend the 60th Commonwealth Parliamentary Conference (CPC) whereas Mr Bokhari will represent Pakistan at the 131st Assembly of the International Parliamentary Union (IPU) to be held in Geneva from Oct 12 to 16.

The sources said that because of the prevailing political crisis and the issue relating to resignation of the protesting PTI legislators, the NA speaker could not join the parliamentary delegation which had left for Cameroon on Thursday.

An official of the National Assembly Secretariat said the speaker was due to return on Oct 11, but added that there was a possibility that the speaker might cut his visit short and return a day earlier.

The official said the visit was important because Pakistan would be hosting the next year’s CPC.

The Senate chairman will lead a 12-member delegation to the IPU assembly in Switzerland. It includes Leader of Opposition in the Senate Chaudhry Aitzaz Ahsan, PPP’s parliamentary leader Raza Rabbani, ANP’s Abdul Nabi Bangash, PML-N’s Sardar Zulfiqar Khosa, former minister and MNA Ghaus Bakhsh Mahar and Raza Hayat Hiraj.

Talking to Dawn, Mr Rabbani, who was elected to the IPU’s Executive Committee last year, said that after the IPU assembly, the committee would meet on Oct 16 to review a draft proposal prepared by a sub-committee about IPU’s future relationship with the United Nations.

He said the executive committee would discuss the document keeping in mind that independence of the IPU should not be affected by its relations with the UN.

Mr Rabbani, who is also PPP’s deputy secretary general, said he would also represent his party at a conference of the Socialist International which also is scheduled to be held in Geneva.

The Socialist International is a worldwide organisation of social democratic, socialist and labour parties. Established in 1951 in Frankfurt, the organisation has 168 political parties as its members. The PPP is the only member of the organisation from Pakistan.

With its secretariat in London, the Socialist International convenes meetings and conferences and issues statements and press releases.

Published in Dawn, October 6th, 2014