ISLAMABAD, Sept 25: The National Assembly faltered on Tuesday, with impunity, on a mandatory calendar before its fast-approaching demise as its managers have apparently been working overtime to prepare for just one day that their critics say should belong to a successor house.

The constitution makes it obligatory for the 342-seat lower house to be in session for a total of at least 130 days in each parliamentary year.

The present house did it in all the previous four years but, while being in recess for the past 39 days, the obligation became unachievable on Tuesday mainly because of the government’s preoccupation with the controversial presidential election set for Oct 6, for which the National Assembly is the core of a 1,170-strong but 702-vote electoral college, which also includes the 100-seat Senate and the four provincial assemblies.

The assembly has so far met for 78 “working days” of the current parliamentary year, still 52 days short of the obligatory 130 days while only 51 days are left of its five-year term expiring on Nov 15.

The constitution, in clause (2) of its article 54, says “the National Assembly shall meet for not less than one hundred and thirty working days in each year” -- the “working days” including any day of a joint sitting of the two houses of parliament and up to two days of adjournment, such as a weekend recess.

But no penalty is provided for the violation, for which the parliamentary affairs ministry, which proposes when a session of the National Assembly or the Senate should be called, appeared helpless, although no regrets were immediately offered.

However, an opposition spokesman compared the situation with President Pervez Musharraf’s failure, for the fourth year running, to meet the constitutional obligation of addressing a joint sitting of parliament at the start of each parliamentary year.

Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Kamil Ali Agha said his ministry had proposed for the president to summon an Assembly session on Sept 7 after the last session ended on Aug 17, and that no new summary proposing another date had been sent.Senator Agha would not say why the session was not called on Sept 7, but he said he thought one might be called “within a day or two” before the presidential election, for which both the National Assembly and the Senate are due to meet at the parliament house on Oct 6 from 10am to 3pm when the four provincial assemblies will meet at their respective chambers to cast their votes.

But the Oct 6 meeting, to be presided over by Chief Election Commissioner Qazi Mohammad Farooq as the returning officer for the election, will not be counted as a regular working day for the National Assembly or any other house.

Mr Agha said although the 130 “working days” were mandatory, it would not matter much if the target were not met once while it had been overshot in the past.

But Izhar Amrohvi, parliamentary secretary for the PPP-led Alliance for the Restoration of Democracy (ARD), said the violation reflected a reign of “might is right” and asked: “What was done when so many other obligations were not met in the past?”

“What could you do against the president’s refusal to address a joint sitting, or what could you do about the government’s failure to constitute a Council of Common Interests (to settle disputes between provinces), ... or about what happened to the Supreme Court decision on Nawaz Sharif.”

The National Assembly met for 131 “working days” in its first parliamentary year, which was marked by the noisiest protests inside the house in the country’s parliamentary history against General Musharraf’s military presidency, 130 days in the second, 132 days in the third and 132 says in the fourth year.

President Musharraf’s political opponents question his right to seek election to what he calls his second and the opposition parties call third term of office from a dying electoral college while being army chief as well. They want a civilian president to be elected by new assemblies as the present ones had already given a similar vote in a controversial vote of confidence for President Musharraf in early 2004.

General Musharraf has promised to the Supreme Court, which is hearing challenges to his position, to give up the army office “if re-elected” for another term. The government says Gen Musharraf can keep both offices and contest for the re-election under the 17th amendment to the Constitution.