–Marriyum Aurangzeb says party will hold demonstration against speaker’s decision on Thursday
ISLAMABAD: National Assembly Speaker Asad Qaiser on Wednesday summoned a session of the Lower House on October 17 and also issued production orders for Opposition Leader Shehbaz Sharif enabling him to attend the session.
The session is expected to start at 11:00 am in the Parliament House.
The opposition parties, however, are adamant to protest outside the Parliament House on Thursday, saying the NA speaker did not accept their demand for calling the NA session this week.
“We had requested for the NA session to be called ‘timely’ but the NA speaker did not accept our request,” said PML-N spokesperson Marriyum Aurangzeb.
On October 5, the evening when Shehbaz was arrested, a requisition to call an NA session to deliberate the matter had been submitted to the NA secretariat.
The next day, on October 6, a delegation of opposition leaders comprising the PML-N chairman and Leader of the Opposition in Senate Raja Zafarul Haq, former NA speaker Ayaz Sadiq, Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl leader Abdul Ghafoor Haideri and PML-N lawmaker Rana Tanvir met the incumbent NA speaker at his residence and urged him to summon the session soon as they wished to raise the issue of Shehbaz’s arrest.
Talking to Pakistan Today, PML-N Chairman Raja Zafarul Haq said the decision to issue production orders for Shehbaz Sharif was a positive decision but since it also coincides with the end of remand given for Sharif, it would not facilitate the opposition leader.
“I feel that Speaker National Assembly acted under pressure from the government. When we had met the Speaker to make formal request for an early requisition of the NA session, we found his attitude as very positive towards our request,” he said.
Haq said the PML-N delegation told the speaker that it was mandatory to requisite the NA session as Shehbaz Sharif was not only an MNA but also leader of the opposition.
“Hence, the PML-N leader deserved to be released and an emergent session be called. The speaker told us that he would consult with some people in this regard. I think that the government prevailed over him and asked him not to call the NA session till Shehbaz’s remand ends,” the PML-N leader said.
Earlier, a meeting of PML-N’s Central Executive Committee (CEC) decided to protest inside the 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 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.
