President Arif Alvi will address the joint session of parliament on October 3. The President’s speech will mark the beginning of the final parliamentary year of the current National Assembly.
Speaker of National Assembly, Raja Pervaiz Ashraf, while speaking during lunch in honour of the Parliamentary Reporters Association on Thursday, said that the delay in calling the session was due to the Parliament member’s commitment to relief efforts in the flood-affected districts.
According to media reports, the President had declined to deliver the address based on the text provided by the government last month.
A joint session of the two houses of parliament before the start of the new parliamentary year was likely to turn into another constitutional controversy.
While the two houses are technically still in session and will resume on October 3, it is required by the constitution that the annual ritual be preceded by a combined sitting of both houses.
President Alvi had already come under fire from the opposition for allegedly undermining the parliament by issuing a record number of ordinances while the PTI government was in power.
