ISLAMABAD: President Arif Alvi has summoned a joint session of the National Assembly and Senate on Thursday, October 6 at 5 pm, the President House announced on Tuesday.
The president will also be addressing the session on Thursday afternoon. The joint session has been summoned in line with the Article 54 (1) and 56 (3) of the Constitution.
The development comes after the federal government overcame its reluctance to President Alvi’s address to the joint sitting of parliament and agreed to send him an official request in this regard.
Sources said the reservations of National Assembly Speaker Raja Pervaiz Ashraf had also been removed. The president, who was appointed during the tenure of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), had been formally invited to address the joint session of parliament.
According to the sources, the federal government, coalition parties and the speaker’s office had held a lengthy discussion on the matter.
They had come to the conclusion that the president’s address to the joint session was essential for the new parliamentary year. The government was earlier considering other options apart from the president’s address, the sources had added. Well-placed sources had previously hinted that a special joint sitting of the two houses of parliament before the commencement of the new parliamentary year was likely to mushroom into another constitutional controversy as President Arif Alvi has refused to deliver the address based on the text provided by the government. –Agencies
