NA session kicks off today with PM’s US visit in focus

PML-N lawmakers to not attend parliament until production orders of detained MNAs are issued

A new session of the National Assembly will start from today at 4pm with the Prime Minister Imran Khan’s ‘Mission Kashmir’ to the US in focus. President Arif Alvi has summoned the session under Article 54(1) of the constitution.

The discussions in the lower house of parliament are likely to centre around the issue of occupied Kashmir and the country’s foreign policy in the wake of Prime Minister Imran Khan recent visit to New York, where he addressed the 74th session of the UN General Assembly.

The opposition parties are expected to vehemently protest against the non-issuance of production orders of detained lawmakers.

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Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Shahid Khaqan Abbasi has directed the party’s lawmakers to not attend the session until the issuance of the production orders.

Abbasi has also written a letter to the National Assembly Speaker Asad Qaiser, informing him about his party’s decision.
He told the speaker that the non-issuance of the production orders was against parliamentary norms and defied the principles of democracy.

The former premier expressed his disappointment over the National Assembly speaker’s failure to issue production orders of arrested opposition members.

The PML-N shed light on the speaker’s unresponsiveness to an earlier letter where he had urged the issuance of the production orders of arrested members of parliament.

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“I regret that I have not received a response to my letter,” wrote Abbasi.

He further wrote that no production orders were issued for the address by the president to both houses assembled together under article 56(3) of the Constitution.

Abbasi also accused the office of the speaker of engaging in deliberate delays over the issuance of the order and said this was a “violation of basic principles of democracy”.

“In order to protect the dignity of the office of the speaker from pressure exerted by the government, I will voluntarily not attend the proceedings of the House after the production orders are issues,” the letter read.

Before the start of the proceedings, the House Business Advisory Committee of the National Assembly will meet to set the agenda of the session.