Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif took the decision after conferring with his top aides on Monday. According to a spokesperson for the prime minister’s media office, Opposition Leader in the National Assembly Syed Khursheed Shah had given the proposal for convening a joint sitting of the National Assembly and the Senate.
Attendees at the meeting included Federal Ministers Ishaq Dar, Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, Ahsan Iqbal, Pervaiz Rashid, Lt Gen (retd) Abdul Qadir Baloch, Khawaja Saad Rafique and Zahid Hamid.
The National Assembly, which was convened before the PTI and PAT marchers left Lahore for Islamabad on August 14, is already in session and will reconvene on Monday. It is a parliamentary tradition that a joint session of parliament is convened on important national issues.
Syed Khursheed Shah, who belongs to the opposition Pakistan Peoples Party, had suggested the government convene a joint session of parliament to send out a clear message to the stakeholders that all parties represented in the house were united to save the system.
The upper and lower houses of the Parliament have already adopted resolutions in support of democracy and the constitution. Lawmakers from the PTI, the third largest party in the National Assembly, have already submitted their resignations to the office of the speaker. The PTI doesn’t have any representation in the Senate.
“[Sunday’s] meeting condemned the attack on the symbols of the state by [workers of] two political parties and regarded it undemocratic and unconstitutional. The steps taken by the police and security forces to defend and defeat such acts were appreciated,” the spokesperson said referring to Saturday night’s incidents in the Red Zone.
The government opted for negotiations to resolve the thorny issues but was betrayed by the leaders of the protesting parties, he said referring to PTI chairman Imran Khan and PAT chief Dr Tahirul Qadri.
“It was maintained [during the meeting] that an invasion was made [by the two parties] despite a prior commitment. It was agreed that this undemocratic onslaught should be withdrawn and the parties should come back to the negotiating table,” he added. The government claims that almost all the issues were settled with the PTI negotiating team during Saturday’s talks and both sides were fine-tuning a deal.
According to the spokesman, the prime minister directed Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan to utilise all resources to ensure protection of state institutions without any loss of life.
He said the meeting also condemned the acts of violence against media persons by the police, calling them ‘unauthorised acts’. “The meeting condemned a few unauthorised acts of violence against the media which resulted in injuries [to media persons] and damage to their equipment,” he said. He added that the prime minister also directed the ministry of information ensure an immediate verified compensation mechanism and investigation into the incident.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 1st, 2014.
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A wise political step asserting the authority and validity of the parliament. The house can formally approve all the negotiating points that have already been approved by the government in its negotiations with PTI or PAT. This would remove any justification by the protestors for continuing their protest and any continuing protests would reconfirm the anarchist nature of the leaders and their followers. This will only enhance the moral authority of the government in dealing with the miscreants including if required, putting IK and TUQ under arrest.
There was no invasion. Both PAT and PTI were careful not to give the govt. an excuse to use force, but the govt. resorted to use of force first, forcing protesters into the parliament grounds.