President Musharraf summons Ist NA session on Friday
ISLAMABAD: President General Pervez Musharraf has summoned the first session of the National Assembly on November 08 (Friday).
Some 339 newly elected Members of National Assembly will take oath in first session of the assembly. The first session is believed to be presided over by Chief Election Commissioner of Pakistan, Justice (Retd) Irshad Hassan Khan, the highly placed source revealed to NNI here Saturday.
The National Assembly is a lower House of the Pakistan’s Parliament with total 342 seats. The re-elections on three national assembly constituencies has been ordered by the Election Commission of Pakistan, it is therefore the first session would be attended by 339 MNAs.
On the second day of the first session, nomination and election of the Speaker and the Deputy Speaker is expected.
On November 12 the nomination for the Leader of the House (Prime Minister) is expected and the elections are expected to be completed for head of the government by November 14. On the same day, the elections of Leader of the Opposition are also expected to be completed.
On November 14 transfer of power from the Chief Executive of Pakistan, General Pervez Musharraf to the newly elected Prime Minister would also complete its course.
The newly elected Prime Minister is expected to announce his small cabinet within 2 days of his or her elections.
On November 23, the elections of the Senate would be taking place and by end of this month full cabinet is believed to be surfaced, the source said.
Two strong candidates for the top slot of the civilian government in Pakistan are Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali of Pakistan Muslim League (Q) and Maulana Fazlur Rehman of Mutahida Majlas-e-Aamal Pakistan (MMAP).
PML (Q) with its claims of simple majority with 177 legislators of the nine parties coalition including MQM, GNA and other smaller groups, stands at number one and believed hot favourit for the slot of Prime Minister.
Whereas Maulana Fazlur Rehman with his claims of having support of 163 legislators including ARD (PPP-P and PML-N) stands as runner up for the position of the Prime Minister.
However, the Pakistan Peoples Party Parliamentarians are surely believed to sit on the opposition benches as Makhdoom Amin Fahim’s efforts for a government of national consensus seemed failed.
The parliament however, in case of PML-Q government with a simple majority is believed a real hang parliament as for legislation 229 votes are surely a need for any bill moved before the National assembly.
The official release issued this afternoon states, “The President has summoned the newly elected National Assembly to meet on Friday (Nov 08) in Islamabad. The elected Members will be administered oath as members of the NA following which the process of electing speaker and deputy speaker of the NA and the Leader of the House will be set in motion. The first session of the NA has been summoned on completion of the election process yesterday (Friday), following the notification of the members elected against the seats reserved for women and minorities