Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has not yet forwarded the summary to the president for convening the National Assembly session, and the sitting is now expected to be held next week, the sources said.
According to the sources, the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs had sent a summary to the prime minister seeking to convene the National Assembly session on Monday at 5pm. The summary was part of the routine process through which a session of the lower house is called.
The sources said a decision to reschedule the session was taken during a meeting between the president and the prime minister. No official announcement about the new date of the session had been made when the report was filed.
Under the Constitution, the president summons a session of the National Assembly on the advice of the prime minister. The summary sent by the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs is the first step in that process, and the session is formally called once the prime minister forwards the advice and the president approves it.
The National Assembly is the lower house of Pakistan’s parliament, and its sessions take up legislation, debates on matters of public importance and questions to ministers. The timing of a session is normally fixed in consultation between the government and the parliamentary leadership.
Parliamentary sources added that the National Assembly session is now expected to be summoned next week, and the formal process for calling it will be completed once the summary is forwarded to the president.
The president and the prime minister have been in contact over the matter, and the decision to hold the session next week was taken after their discussion. Further details about the agenda of the session are expected to be shared once the session is formally summoned.
Once the session is formally summoned, the National Assembly Secretariat will issue the orders of the day setting out the business to be taken up, including legislation and debates. Until the summary is forwarded and approved, the exact date of the sitting remains unconfirmed, and parliamentary sources say the government will complete the process in the coming days.
