ISLAMABAD - The National Assembly session will start here today with some important matters on its agenda including voting on the motion moved by the MQM and JUI-F for disqualification of PTI MNAs, and ratification of the amendments the Senate introduced in the Local Bodies Bill for Islamabad.
The stormy session would start under the chair of National Assembly Speaker in the afternoon and most likely the report of Judicial Commission on alleged rigging in the 2013 General Elections would be tabled before the House, a parliamentary source informed The Nation.
National Assembly Speaker Sardar Ayaz Sadiq has already called the House Business Advisory Committee meeting ahead of the session to finalise the agenda and duration of the session which also included ratification of the amendments introduced in the Local Bodies Bill for Federal Capital by the Senate and voting on the motion the MQM and JUI-F moved for disqualification of the PTI MNAs for being absent from the House for more than 40 days without any intimation.
Sources in the ruling PML-N informed that the government was in no mood to support the move initiated by the MQM and JUI-F and some key leaders of the ruling PML-N were tasked by Premier Sharif to convince both the parties to withdraw their motion seeking disqualification of some 28 PTI MNAs including its Chairman Imran Khan to avoid any conflict in the Parliament.
Sources in the ruling PML-N confirmed that the party had already taken the Pakistan People’s Party in loop on the issue, and in case the MQM and JUI-F would insist for voting on the matter in the Lower House, then both the major political forces in the Parliament, the PPP and PML-N, would oppose it, as according to these sources Premier Sharif considered that such a development would be detrimental to the incumbent political dispensation.
Sources in the Parliament said that the matter would be discussed in the House Business Advisory Committee and if the MQM and JUI-F would insist for voting on their motion, then it would likely be taken up on Tuesday, Private Members Day, in the National Assembly or in later part of the week.
Sources in the PML-N confirmed that the National Assembly would give its approval to the amendments introduced in the Local Bodies Bill by the Upper House recommending the holding of the elections on party-basis instead of non-party basis.
Earlier, the National Assembly has passed the Local Bodies Bill for holding the elections in Islamabad for the first time on non-party basis which was amended by the Senate recommending holding of these elections on party-basis. Now as per the constitution, the same would require ratification from the Lower House and for that matter the bill was returned back to the National Assembly for the same and after its approval from the Lower House it would become act.
During the current session, the National Assembly is likely to see the parliamentarians’ criticism on the government for its failure to effectively manage the flood-relief activities in southern Punjab and government’s failure to come up to its claim of containing power load-shedding during the holy month of Ramazan.
A source further said that a Parliamentary Committee to monitor the execution of China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) would also be notified during the session for which the Senate had already sent the list of its seven nominees to the National Assembly while another 14 would be inducted in the committee from the Lower House.