ISLAMABAD, May 25: President Gen Pervez Musharraf on Tuesday called the National Assembly to meet on Monday to begin the second budget session of the present lower house.

An announcement by the National Assembly secretariat said the house had been summoned to meet at 5.30pm on May 31, five days before Finance Minister Shaukat Aziz is due to present the budget for fiscal year 2004-05 on June 5.

Parliamentary sources said the five days before the presentation of the budget were likely to produce heated debates on issues ranging from a controversy over the naming of an opposition leader to the deportation of PML-N president Shahbaz Sharif and recent sectarian and by-election violence.

But they said the government would take comfort from a division within the opposition over Speaker Chaudhry Amir Hussain's naming of Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal secretary-general Maulana Fazlur Rehman as the opposition leader.

The Alliance for the Restoration of Democracy, which claims support of 80 members in the house, has decided to challenge the nomination of Maulana Fazl, whose alliance has 68 members.