Islamabad: The joint sitting of Parliament meeting will be held today at 4pm at the Parliament House in Islamabad.
The office of the speaker of parliament, in calling Wednesday’s joint session, did not give a reason but the state-run Associated Press of Pakistan (APP) said the ruling coalition had called for parliament to “take important decisions” to ensure the writ of the state was enforced.
The APP, reporting on a meeting attended by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and his cabinet, cited the participants as saying Khan’s PTI was not a political party but “rather a gang of militants”, and its “enmity against the state” could not be tolerated.
Parliament will meet in Islamabad as Khan’s supporters gather for his latest rally in the eastern city of Lahore.
The clashes between Khan’s supporters and the security forces have brought a new round of political instability to the country, which is in the midst of a crippling economic crisis.
A day after a six-hour-long meeting of the heads of the component parties of the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) — a 13-party ruling alliance — National Assembly Speaker Raja Pervaiz Ashraf, while exercising his powers under Joint Sitting Rules 1973, has made a change in the schedule of the joint session of parliament.
As per the new schedule, the joint sitting of parliament will convene on Wednesday (tomorrow) instead of 10th of next month to “take important decisions” to enforce the state’s authority, media reported, in the midst of prolonged anti-government defiance by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan.
