ISLAMABAD, Jan 27: Acting Chairman of Senate Mir Jan Mohammad Jamali on Sunday summoned the upper house session at 4pm on Wednesday.

Thirty-nine Senators had on Jan 24 submitted a requisition to the Senate secretariat. The Ministry of Law and Parliamentary Affairs had earlier this month submitted a summary to the president for convening the session on January 14 in order to complete 90 days of the parliamentary calendar year.

However, the government decided not to convene the session apparently to avoid an opposition’s onslaught on a number of issues, including the assassination of PPP chairperson Benazir Bhutto, price hike, power and gas loadshedding and law and order.

Talking to Dawn, Mr Jamali said that although the onus of maintaining quorum would be on the opposition, he would like the pro-government parliamentary groups to cooperate in completing the required days of session of the parliamentary calendar year.

MMA’s Parliamentary Leader in Senate Prof Khurshid Ahmed, who is co-signatory, along with Leader of the Opposition Mian Raza Rabbani, of a privilege motion against government’s failure to summon the session, told Dawn that the groups which had requisitioned the session would try to meet the quorum obligation.

He said the session would be both stormy and substantive because issues like the tragic murder of Ms Bhutto, military operation in Darra Adamkhel, Kohat, Swat, Wana and other tribal areas, flour crisis and power and gas loadshedding would come up for discussion.

The MMA leader said that opposition Senators would also raise President Pervez Musharraf’s remarks against Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry and the national media during his recent visit to European countries.