Joint sitting of parliament likely to be held in 3rd week of February

A joint sitting of Parliament is likely to be held in 3^rd week of February to discuss the new terms of engagement with the United States and NATO in the light of recommendations prepared by the Parliamentary Committee on National Security (PCNS).

According to the media reports, the three-day joint session of the both houses will deliberate on future working relationship in the war on terror, particularly cooperation with the US, NATO and ISAF.

Earlier, the information and the law ministers had announced that the government would summon a joint session in the first week of February. However, the matter was deferred until the third week this month due to National Assembly session. The government wants to get the 20^th amendment pass first.

During the session, Prime Minister Syed Yousaf Raza Gilani would table the recommendation of the PCNS before the parliamentarians about the country’s foreign, defence and security policies.

The premier, Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar and Defence Minister Ahmad Mukhtar will brief the public representatives about the current state of affairs with the US and NATO.

The government may announce to restore NATO supply line as the PCNS has included it in its recommendations, however, strict conditions are also proposed in this regard.

PM Gilani has already said that the government would honour the recommendations of parliamentary panel while Foreign Minister Khar also indicated to reopen the NATO supply line if parliament permits doing so.

The government would also take its allies and opposition parties into confidence over the pending legislation. It would also bring pending legislation in the joint session as a round of consultations with allied parties that has already been completed.

The report quoting officials in the National Assembly’s Secretariat and Senate Secretariat informed that 13 bills of legislation were pending in one or the other house of the parliament.

The Joint parliamentary sittings will also discuss most crucial issues and challenges confronted by the country.

Both the Houses of Parliament jointly met respectively on October 21-22, 2008, March 22, 2011, and May 13-14, 2011 to take up burning challenges confronted by the country. The sessions were held at the time of challenges of militancy and extremism in Swat and against the unilateral U.S. forces action in Abbottabad.

A couple of joint sittings were also held in honor of the foreign dignitaries including Turkish Premier Tayyip Erdogan on October 26, 2009, and Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao on December 19, 2010.

Furthermore, President Asif Ali Zardari for the first time addressed the joint sitting of Parliament four times consecutively.

Short URL: https://www.newspakistan.pk/?p=11617

Posted by Faisal Farooq on Feb 3 2012. Filed under National, Pakistan, Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.