Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: National Assembly Speaker Asad Qaiser on Wednesday summoned a session of the Lower House on October 17.

Additionally, the NA Secretariat also issued production orders to ensure the presence of Leader of the Opposition Shehbaz Sharif, who is currently in the National Accountability Bureau’s custody.

“In the exercise of the powers conferred by rule 108 Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in the National Assembly 2007, the Speaker has been pleased to summon Shehbaz Sharif, leader of the opposition, to attend the said session in the Parliament House,” the letter addressed to the NAB read.

The production orders were issued after the speaker announced the second session of the National Assembly to take place on the aforementioned date.

The NA session will begin at 11am on next Wednesday in the Parliament House.

Meanwhile, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) has called for a NA and Senate session at the Parliament House gate today over the arrest of opposition leader Shehbaz Sharif.

Reacting to the summoning of the NA session, PML-N spokesperson Marriyum Aurangzeb said the party would hold a meeting today to protest against the date fixed for the session.

“We had requisitioned for an early NA session, however, the NA speaker summoned it on October 17,” she lamented. Former NA speaker Sardar Ayaz Sadiq had also been meeting leaders of opposition parties for holding the sessions outside the assemblies.

The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), during the meeting of its Central Executive Committee (CEC), had decided to protest inside parliament over Shehbaz’s arrest. The party had also given a deadline, which expired on Tuesday, for summoning sessions of the national and Punjab assemblies.

Speaking to the media after the CEC meeting, Rana Sanaullah had said that they had submitted requisitions for summoning sessions of both the assemblies and that if they were not called, they would conduct the sessions outside the respective assemblies.

On Saturday, the PML-N had requisitioned a NA session over party president Shehbaz Sharif’s arrest. A PML-N delegation headed by Raja Zafarul Haq and comprising Sardar Ayaz Sadiq and Murtaza Javed Abbasi among others visited NA speaker Asad Qaiser’s residence to submit the requisition.

The PML-N president was arrested by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) on Friday in the Ashiana Iqbal Housing Scheme case and sent on a 10-day physical remand.

Published in Daily Times, September 11^th 2018.