President Asif Ali Zardari is scheduled to deliver the opening address of the parliamentary year in a joint session of parliament following the general elections held on February 8, as reported by The News on Thursday.
The session, slated to begin at 4 pm, has been called by the president exercising powers granted under Articles 54(1) and 56(3) of the Constitution. This marks Zardari’s seventh address to the joint session, having previously done so during his tenure as head of state from 2008 to 2013.
In addition, the president has called for a session of the National Assembly on Friday at 10:30 am under Article 54(1) of the Constitution.
Originally scheduled for April 16, the joint session was postponed to today.
This session holds significance as it is the first joint session of the new parliamentary year, following the elections for both the upper and lower houses.
Former president Arif Alvi, despite still being in office, was unable to convene a joint session earlier due to pending Senate elections. Alvi had previously called a joint session on October 6, 2022, during the tenure of a coalition government led by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, marking the beginning of the last parliamentary year of the then-National Assembly in 2022.
Anticipated to witness strong opposition reactions, the session is likely to be attended by a significant number of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf-backed Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC) members, known for their previous vocal protests.
The National Assembly Secretariat has extended invitations to the chief justice of Pakistan, governors, and chief ministers of all provinces, as well as officials such as the Pakistan Army’s chairman joint chiefs of staff committee (CJCSC), the three services chiefs, and speakers and deputy speakers of all provincial assemblies, including those of Azad Jammu and Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan.
