ISLAMABAD, Aug 19: MMA’s deputy secretary Hafiz Hussain Ahmed visited the speaker’s chamber on Tuesday to file a requisition for the summoning of the National Assembly but he was told that the government had already summoned the house.

NA Speaker Chaudhry Amir Hussain said that since the government had already summoned the assembly, the proposed requisition could not be entertained.

Talking to Dawn afterwards Hafiz Hussain Ahmed claimed that he remained in the speaker’s chamber till 2pm and till then no official notification had been issued about the summoning of the assembly.

When he asked about the notification, the speaker, he said, informed him that the prime minister had indicated to him (the speaker) that the decision to convene the session on Wednesday afternoon had already been taken.

Hafiz Hussain Ahmed said that while the government was of the view that the assembly session and the negotiations with the opposition should go side by side, the MMA too was ready for talks as well as continuing its protest in the assembly.

Referring to President Musharraf’s fresh utterance about his uniform, he said as far as the MMA was concerned the countdown of one year had already begun and he (the president) should not expect any more flexibility on this account from the alliance.

He said the MMA leadership will meet to chalk out its strategy of protest before going into the house on Wednesday. He said the MMA would also like to consult the other opposition parliamentary parties in this connection.

When asked whether he foresaw any chance of talks being resumed in the next few days, he said the alliance had not closed its doors on negotiations and would decide about such an eventuality when invitation to this effect was extended.

Hafiz Hussain strongly protested the government’s sudden decision of summoning the house without giving the members sufficient time to reach the capital from far-flung areas.

He said he told the speaker that it was strange that with only 24 hours to go before the commencement of the NA session the relevant notification had neither been received by his chamber nor issued to the members “and the members have to come from as distant a place as the Makran division.”

Meanwhile, Rahat Zafar, staff officer to the speaker, when contacted by Dawn for confirmation about the calling of the NA session, expressed his ignorance about any such notification to have arrived till about 1pm.

He was also unaware of any agenda for the day. However, it was expected that the agenda for the day will be prepared in the house advisory committee meeting scheduled for Wednesday at 4pm at parliament house.

The government, the sources said, had decided to run the new session until the middle of November and that, too, with only two sittings of very short duration every week to thwart the threatened rumpus by the joint opposition.