President set to face hostile opposition in parliament today – Pakistan

ISLAMABAD: President Dr. Arif Alvi will face a hostile opposition during his constitutionally ordered speech to the joint session of parliament on Thursday at the beginning of the second parliamentary year of the National Assembly under Pakistan's Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) .

Speaking to Sunrise Here on Wednesday, the leaders of two main opposition parties, the Pakistan-Nawaz Muslim League (PML-N) and the Popular Party of Pakistan (PPP), said they would finalize their strategy for the joint session at a meeting of the combined opposition just before the beginning of the session, but declared that they would definitely use their right to protest the unconstitutional appointment of two members of the Electoral Commission of Pakistan (ECP) by the president and the non-issuance of the production order for lawmakers arrested.

"The government is unlikely to have a good progress during the joint session," said Syed Naveed Qamar of the PPP.

He said that "when we were in government, we always tried to consider the opposition in thorny matters before such important occasions to ensure trouble-free procedures in parliament." However, he lamented, this government was not interested in administering parliament without problems.

When he contacted the secretary of information of PML-N, Marriyum Aurangzeb, he said that this government had a habit of causing problems for himself and, this time, he had done so by making "illegal appointments" at the PCE.

PML-N, PPP will end protest strategy at a meeting before the start of the joint session

Responding to a question about the possible opposition plan to disrupt parliament's procedures, he said they only wanted to seek a government response on the issue of the appointment of PCE members, adding that it was the right of the opposition to raise in the parliament the matter of "serious violation of the Constitution" by the president and the prime minister.

She said that even the retired chief commissioner of elections, Judge Sardar Mohammad Raza had declared in his order that the appointment of two PCE members was "unconstitutional."

Ms. Aurangzeb said that so far the speaker of the National Assembly had not issued the production order for the arrested opposition members to allow them to attend the joint session. She said it was the right of each member of parliament to attend the joint session. He said Opposition leader and PML-N president Shahbaz Sharif would also go to Islamabad to attend the joint session even though doctors had advised him to rest.

Currently, six members of the opposition are in the custody of the National Office of Responsibility (NAB) and other law enforcement agencies on charges of corruption. Members arrested are Asif Ali Zardari of the PPP, Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, Khawaja Saad Rafique and Rana Sanaullah Khan of PML-N and Ali Wazir and Mohsin Dawar, the two independent MNAs of Waziristan.

Similarly, Syed Khurshid Shah, of the PPP, said he had proposed opposition parties to present a strong protest over the "violation of the Constitution" by the president himself.

Shah said that being president of the country, Dr. Alvi should not have made such a mistake in appointing the two members of the PCE without following due constitutional process.

He also said opposition lawmakers would make a final decision on the opposition's protest mode at a meeting of opposition parties on Thursday.

Informed sources said Sunrise that the opposition parties had previously made a plan to prevent the president from giving his speech in parliament through a loud protest, but now they had decided to keep their plan secret until the last moment.

The sources said that while discussing the issue of the appointment of PCE members, members of the opposition Rahbar Committee had discussed at their meeting on August 26 the option of presenting a resolution of political trial against the president.

A PPP official, who was present at the meeting, had said that the president could be dismissed under Article 47 for violating the Constitution.

Article 47 of the Constitution states: "Notwithstanding the provisions of the Constitution, the President may, in accordance with the provisions of this Article, be removed from office for physical or mental disability or be accused of violating the Constitution or Inappropriate Conduct. . "

Posted on Dawn, September 12, 2019