ISLAMABAD, March 10: Amid demands for an early session of the newly elected National Assembly, the caretaker government on Monday advised President Pervez Musharraf to summon the lower house, setting in motion the process of what is likely to be a dramatic post-election transition.

There was no immediate official word about the date of the session although the state media quoted the caretaker law and parliamentary affairs minister as hoping it would happen in the current week, as a prelude to the transfer of power to the winners of the Feb 18 election.

President Musharraf said in a speech on Friday it would take a week to 10 days to summon the new National Assembly, provoking demands from election winners that the session be called immediately, some of them voicing fears the presidency could use a delay for political manipulation as done after the previous election in October 2002.

The newly elected lawmakers must take oath as members of the house in an inaugural session to be followed by the election of a speaker and deputy speaker and then a new prime minister, who must be from the Pakistan People’s Party under a coalition agreement with the PML-N.

A presidential spokesman, quoted by the APP, confirmed the presidency had received the summary, or advice, from the office of caretaker Prime Minister Mohammedmian Soomro for convening the assembly.

But there was no immediate information if the president had acted on the advice.

Parliamentary sources said a prime minister’s summary usually suggested a date for the assembly session, which was normally accepted by the president. In case of the president’s disagreement with the date, a new summary is prepared.

But the APP quoted Law Minister Afzal Haider as saying that the summary initiated by his ministry on Saturday had not proposed any date for convening the session. “The authority to fix the... date lies with the president (and), therefore, he will decide the day for the NA session,” he said.

A National Assembly member elected by a majority of the 342-member house is to be invited by the president to be the prime minister, whose oath-taking will mark the induction of a new federal government.

Despite a two-thirds majority enjoyed in the house by the coalition partners and other groups opposed to President Musharraf, the prime ministerial induction is likely to be full of drama in view of the prevailing contention for the office within the PPP and the likely controversy over latest reservations voiced by a key PML-N member about a major PPP contender, Makhdoom Amin Fahim.