Daily Times

Speaker Raja Pervaiz Ashraf has summoned a session of the newly-elected National Assembly tomorrow (Thursday). The decision was made after President Dr Arif Alvi refused to sign the summary convening the maiden session.

According to a notification issued by the speaker, the session will begin at 10 am on Thursday. Speaker of National Assembly Raja Pervez Ashraf chaired a consultative meeting on Monday after President Alvi rejected the summary and returned it with reservations about the incomplete process of allocation of the reserved seats.

They said that after consultations with senior officials from the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs and the Ministry of Law and Justice, it was decided that the summary signed by the caretaker Prime Minister will be sent to the Speaker National Assembly directly for summoning of the session instead of the President. On Saturday, the sources said that the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs sent a summary to the President to summon the National Assembly as per requirement of the Constitution.

However, President Alvi rejected the summary and desired that all the reserved seats for women and minorities be allocated before summoning the National Assembly session.

The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has allocated women reserved seats of the National Assembly while it has yet to decide on reserved seats for the SIC – a new allied party of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) in the Parliament. In a related development, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Founder Imran Khan said that President Arif Alvi did the right thing by not summoning a session of the National Assembly.

Imran made these remarks during an informal interaction with journalists at Adiala Jail on Tuesday. First and foremost, he said he had personally dictated the letter addressed to the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Furthermore, the PTI founder accused rival political parties, including the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), and Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), of winning through electoral rigging.

“We are gathering all the parties that have been made to lose through rigging. and will hold country-wide protests against rigging,” Imran announced.