President Alvi calls off NA session without any official announcement

President Dr Arif Alvi called off the National Assembly (NA) session on Friday— the same day when Leader of the Opposition Shehbaz Sharif was to appear before a special court in Lahore, reports Dawn.

A spokesperson for the Presi­dency said that the postponement of the session was not officially notified beforehand. According to the media outlet, Pak­istan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) leaders gathered at NA Speaker Asad Qaiser’s residence several hours before the session on Thursday night and decided to have Friday’s session shelved.

They believed that Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) President Shehbaz Sharif and his son Hamza Shehbaz could possibly be arrested on Friday but the court deferred the indictment. The ruling party was of the view that the Sharifs should not be given an opportunity to seek an adjournment on the ground of attending the NA session.

Upon hearing about the postponement, Sharif said the session had been put off as the government was hoping he would be indicted. He further added that it is unprecedented that a scheduled session of the NA has been shelved in such a manner.

However, Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry dismissed this claim. Chaudhry said that Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan’s visit to Russia on February 23 was one of the reasons for the postponement of the session.

Other than this, some sources claim that the government wanted to promulgate some ordinances for which the session had been shelved.

Sharif appeared before the court for his indictment in a money laundering case that was registered by the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA).

As of yet, no new date has been announced for holding the postponed session of the lower house of parliament.