ISLAMABAD, Jan 13: Caretaker Minister for Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs Syed Afzaal Haider on Sunday backed out of his statement that a summary for convening a Senate session from Jan 14 (Monday) had been approved by the president.

Earlier on Friday, the minister had told Dawn from Lahore that the summary had been approved and the Senate would start its session from Monday to complete its remaining calendar days.

When reminded about his statement, the minister said: “I can confirm whether the summary has been approved or not only when I reach my office (Monday morning) as I have just arrived from Lahore”.

Opposition members claimed that the summary was not even moved out of the office of caretaker Prime Minister Muhammadmian Soomro because of reservations of pro-government senators about the holding of the session at this critical juncture.

They argued that running and keeping quorum in the house would be difficult because most of the members were busy in election campaigns of their respective parties.

Leader of the opposition in Senate Mian Raza Rabbani told Dawn that opposition leaders had been contacted by the Senate secretariat and “we all have consented to holding of the session so that we can discuss burning issues, including Benazir Bhutto’s assassination, wheat flour crisis, electricity and gas loadshedding and the law and order situation”.

He said the government had deliberately delayed the session to stall opposition’s onslaught on these issues.

Acting Chairman Senate Jan Mohammad Jamali confirmed to Dawn that his office had reminded the ministry of parliamentary affairs about the shortage of 55 of 90 parliamentary calendar days and asked for summoning the session at the earliest.

PML-Q information secretary Senator Tariq Azeem Khan said his party was not consulted by any quarter, adding that the upper house ought to complete its 90 parliamentary calendar days till March 11, 2008, which seemed impossible even if the house held its proceedings on a daily basis.

Talking to Dawn, PPP Senator Babar Awan said it was the duty of the president and the acting chairman to summon Senate session to offer Fateha for Ms Bhutto.