Speaker summons NA session on October 17

ISLAMABAD: Speaker Asad Qaiser Wednesday summoned the NA session on October 17 on the requisition of the opposition.

The National Assembly session will begin at 11:00 am on next Wednesday in the Parliament House.

Meanwhile, the opposition Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) has announced to hold a NA and Senate session at the Parliament House gate on Thursday (tomorrow) over the arrest of Leader of Opposition Shehbaz Sharif.

PML-N spokesperson Marriyum Aurangzeb said “the party will call a meeting tomorrow to protest against the date fixed for the session.”

“We had requisitioned the NA session be called soon, however, the Speaker has summoned it on October 17,” she lamented.

Earlier, during its Central Executive Committee (CEC) meeting, the leadership of the PML-N decided to take the matter of Shehbaz Sharif’s arrest to the Parliament and record a protest inside the House.

Former premier Nawaz Sharif, who maintained a low profile in politics ever since his release from prison, chaired the CEC meeting.

Arrest of Shehbaz Sharif

On October 6, an accountability court granted 10-day physical remand of Shehbaz Sharif in the Rs 14 billion Ashiyana-i-Iqbal housing project scam.

The National Accountability Bureau arrested the PML-N president, who is the Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly, inside its Lahore office where he was summoned to record his statement in connection with the Punjab Saaf Pani Company case.

A combined investigation team of the country’s anti-graft watchdog quizzed him for an hour over his alleged role in awarding contract to his “favourite firm” in violation of laws in the Ashiyana-i-Iqbal housing project.

The Bureau later issued a statement, declaring that former Punjab chief minister Shehbaz Sharif has been arrested in the scam.