ISLAMABAD: With the National Assembly already on a long recess, the government has now delayed the Senate session for an indefinite period for unexplained reasons.

Sources told Dawn that the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs sent a summary last month to the Prime Minister Secretariat for summoning of the regular session of the Senate on Sept 7, but it was not forwarded to the Presidency.

According to the parliamentary calendar for the year 2015-16, the 119th session of the upper house of parliament was supposed to begin on Sept 7 and was scheduled to continue till Sept 18.

A number of senators belonging to the opposition and treasury benches, when contacted, said they were not aware why the session had not been convened.

Some political experts believe that the government has delayed the session after seeing the aggressive mood of the major opposition parties --- the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) and Awami National Party (ANP) --- due to some recent political happenings in the country.

The Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), another opposition party, is already agitating over the alleged excesses being committed by Rangers in the ongoing operation in Karachi and the party’s lawmakers have submitted their resignations from the National Assembly, the Senate and the Sindh Assembly.

Talking to Dawn, PPP’s Farhatullah Babar alleged that the government had run away from the parliament, fearing the forthcoming Senate session would be stormy because of a number of recent incidents.

He said the PPP had decided to raise the issue of the recent controversial statement of former minister Mushahidullah Khan regarding the role of military in last year’s sit-in of the PTI and that an adjournment motion on the issue had already been submitted to the Senate Secretariat.

Similarly, Mr Babar said, the party was planning to mount a protest against the “partisan nature” of the operation against corruption in Sindh.

When contacted, Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Aftab Ahmed Sheikh said it was not compulsory for the prime minister to approve each and every summary the ministry sent to him. He confirmed that the prime minister had not taken any action on his ministry’s summary for summoning the session on Sept 7.

The minister said the prime minister had the authority to choose suitable dates for summoning the sessions of parliament. He claimed that there was no political reason for delaying the session and that it would be convened sooner or later. He, however, saw no possibility of convening the Senate session before Eidul Azha.

Leader of the House in the Senate and chairman of the ruling PML-N Raja Zafarul Haq also denied the impression that the government had decided to delay the Senate session due to some political reasons.

Talking to Dawn, Mr Haq claimed that officials of the Senate Secretariat and the ministry concerned kept reviewing and changing the schedule in accordance with the constitutional requirements under which the Senate was required to be in session for at least 110 days in a parliamentary year.

He said that since the previous session was a lengthy one and there was no urgency in convening the session, the government might have decided to delay the session for the time being.

In reply to a question, he said that he was not aware as to when the government planned to convene the session.

Mr Haq categorically stated that the decision to postpone the Senate sitting had nothing to do with the recent political developments.

The PPP and ANP have already indicated that they could adopt an aggressive attitude against the PML-N government for their alleged political victimisation in the upcoming session of Senate.

The PPP has also announced that it has decided to end its reconciliation policy and it would no longer support the PML-N government in case of any political crisis.

The party has also announced that it would give a tough time to the government inside and outside the assemblies. The announcements came after arrests of some PPP leaders in Lahore and Karachi by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) and Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) on corruption charges.

Reacting to the arrest of former federal minister and incumbent chairman of the Sindh Higher Education Commission (HEC) Dr Asim Hussain, PPP Co-Chairman Asif Ali Zardari had accused Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif of repeating politics of the 1990s.

In a hard-hitting statement, Mr Zardari warned the PML-N that the “politics of revenge” should immediately be stopped otherwise it would produce “disastrous consequences”.

The PPP leader also accused the rulers of “dividing” the nation in an attempt “to save their natural allies Taliban and other terrorists” and to “weaken” the war against terrorism.

Later, in an apparent move to express solidarity with the PPP and the MQM, ANP President Asfandyar Wali Khan criticised the PML-N government for allegedly marginalising the political parties which were in the forefront of the ongoing war against terrorism.

Apparently happy over the recent decisions of the election tribunals, the PTI is once again flexing its muscles for another round of agitation and the party has already announced that a sit-in would be staged outside the Election Commission of Pakistan’s office on Oct 4, one week before the scheduled by-elections on NA-122 Lahore and NA-154 Lodhran seats.

Published in Dawn, September 7th, 2015

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