ISLAMABAD: National Assembly Speaker Asad Qaiser on Wednesday presided over a meeting of senior members of the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) and then met Prime Minister Imran Khan to discuss the plan for convening the session of the lower house of parliament in the next few days.

According to an official handout, the speaker informed the premier that he had started consultations with all the political parties for convening the assembly session.

During his meeting with the PTI members, Mr Qaiser said the role of the parliament as a public representative was very important for providing relief to the people.

Speaker says joint strategy will be made after consultation with all parties

He said this was the time for them to use all possible resources to implement the promises made to the people. He said all the political parties present in the parliament should play their positive role to get the nation out of the difficult situation.

The meeting also considered the convening of the session of the National Assembly during the current situation of Covid-19 in the country and consultation with the parliamentary leaders of the opposition parties.

Commending the role of the parliament during the first wave of Covid-19, the Speaker said that a joint strategy should be formulated after consultation with the opposition parties to take the legislative process forward.

He said completing the days of the National Assembly session given in the parliamentary calendar was a constitutional requirement and its implementation was the responsibility of the parliament.

Mr Qaiser said people had deep expectations with the parliament and the government was taking steps on a priority basis to meet them. He said a joint strategy for convening the session of the National Assembly would be made after consultation with other political parties.

Those attended the meeting included Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi, Minister for Educ­ation Shafqat Mehmood, Defence Minister Pervaiz Khattak, Planning and Development Minister Asad Umar, PTI’s chief whip in the National Assembly Amir Dogar and Adviser to the PM on Parliamentary Affairs Babar Awan.

Published in Dawn, January 7th, 2021