ISLAMABAD: The National Assembly is all set to meet on Monday (today) after a gap of nearly two months merely to complete a formality of holding a debate on the prevailing situation in the country due to spread of Covid-19 as the government and the opposition have already reached an understanding that no other routine business, including legislation, will be carried out in the current session.

The government has convened the physical session of the assembly on the demand of the opposition parties which will be held under strict adherence of health guidelines and standard operating procedures (SOPs) for ensuring safety of the members and the staff.

The visitors’ galleries will remain closed during the sittings and only journalists will be allowed to sit in the Press Gallery and Press Lounge.

Senate Chairman Sadiq Sanjrani has convened the session of the upper house of the parliament on Tuesday (tomorrow) on the requisition of the opposition parties.

The NA session is being held at a time when Speaker Asad Qaiser has quarantined himself after he tested positive for coronavirus on April 28. Besides the speaker, a couple of MNAs and a number of staff members of the National Assembly and the Senate secretariats have tested positive for Covid-19 in the last two days, raising fears among lawmakers, who were already divided over the issue of convening the sessions of the assembly and the Senate at a time when the country is witnessing a sharp rise in the confirmed cases of Covid-19.

It was due to different viewpoints on the issue within the parties that the leadership had told their respective legislators that attendance in the upcoming sessions of both the houses of the parliament was not mandatory.

Interestingly, Deputy Senate Chairman Saleem Mandviwala, who belongs to the opposition Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), on Sunday issued a statement suggesting that the session requisitioned by his own party should be deferred after detection of coronavirus in some legislators and the staff of the Senate Secretariat.

In his statement, Mr Mandviwala also demanded that the NA session also be postponed as, according to him, “coronavirus has reached corridors of the Parliament House building”.

Mr Mandviwala warned that there could be “dangerous consequences” of the decision to call the sessions.

On the other hand, when contacted, PPP Parliamentary Leader in the Senate Sherry Rehman said though her party was also concerned over the coronavirus situation, but they believed that there was no other option but to make and keep the parliament functional. She was of the view that the session would provide them an opportunity to devise a strategy for the upcoming budget sessions, expected to be held in the first week of June.

The National Assembly Secretariat on Sunday issued a four-point agenda for the Monday’s sitting which included Question Hour and two call attention notices. However, the sources said that as per agreement between the government and the opposition, the whole agenda would be suspended and the members would only be allowed to take part in the debate on the Covid-19 situation.

The agenda includes a calling attention notice of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz’s (PML-N) members “regarding non-provision of sufficient relief to the public in spite of extraordinary decline in global oil prices”.

It was after a meeting of the special NA committee on May 5 that Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi had disclosed that the government and the opposition had reached an understanding for convening the physical session of the assembly.

Published in Dawn, May 11th, 2020