ISLAMABAD: Pakistani President Mamnoon Hussain has summoned the Senate session yesterday to enable the government to meet the constitutional requirement of holding 110 sittings of the parliament’s upper house in a year.
Sources in the Senate Secretariat said that according to the tentative parliamentary calendar, the session was scheduled to begin on January 22, but it had been convened early because the upper house was still short of 49 days to fulfil the constitutional requirement of remaining in session for 110 days in a parliamentary year.
The Senate will have to be in session for most of the days in January and February as the house is required to complete 110 sittings by March 11, which is the last day of its parliamentary year.
It was through the 18th Constitution Amendment that the mandatory sitting days of the Senate were increased from 90 to 110 and Article 61 of the Constitution says the Senate ‘shall meet for not less than 110 days in each year’.
The opposition members, who are in a majority in the Senate after the May 11 general elections, have been critical of the way the government is running the parliament, alleging that the rulers are weakening the parliament’s supremacy by not giving it due importance.
Parliamentary Leader of the main opposition Pakistan Peoples Party Raza Rabbani said the prime minister’s continued absence from both the houses of parliament also strengthened the perception that the government was running the affairs of the state through executive orders.
INTERNEWS
