ISLAMABAD, April 8: On the new government’s advice, President Pervez Musharraf on Tuesday summoned the newly elected National Assembly to meet on Thursday for its first regular session that could take up plans to reinstate the deposed judges of the superior courts.

But despite the changed political landscape after the general election, the president seemed keeping his distance from parliament as usual at the cost of the Constitution, by failing to convene and address a mandatory joint session of the National Assembly and the Senate.

Though details of the agenda of lower session, due to begin at 10am on Thursday, were not immediately available, parliamentary sources said it would include the passage of two resolutions asking the government to seek a UN probe into the Dec 27 assassination of PPP leader Benazir Bhutto and for making an apology to the people of Pakistan over what the PPP calls the “judicial murder” of former prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto in the shape of his execution in 1979 after a controversial conspiracy-to-murder conviction.

The sources said the house could also take up the issue of the reinstatement of about 60 deposed judges of the Supreme Court and the four high courts as envisaged by the “Murree Declaration” signed by PPP co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari and PML-N leader Nawaz Sharif.

That document calls for the reinstatement of the judges through a National Assembly resolution within 30 days of the formation of the new government. But it was not immediately clear whether this session, which is likely to continue for two weeks, would pass the promised resolution or set up a committee to draft the document to be taken up in a subsequent session as well as consider other reforms to ensure the independence of the judiciary.

The Constitution requires the president to address a joint session of both the National Assembly and the Senate before the first session of the lower house after a general election or the start of its parliamentary year.

But he had been violating this provision for years for fear of protests from his political opponents during the life of the previous National Assembly and he did it again after the election of the new house apparently for the same reason, though most of those protesters now form the ruling coalition.

The president is cited by Constitution’s article 50 as part of parliament besides the 342-seat National Assembly and the 100-seat Senate and is empowered by article 56 to address either house or both houses together.

But the mandatory clause (3) of the article 56 says: “At the commencement of the first session after each general election to the National Assembly and at the commencement of the first session of each year the president shall address both houses assembled together and inform the Majlis-i-Shoora (parliament) of the causes of its summons.”

President Musharraf addressed a joint session of the previous parliament only once -– on Jan 17, 2004 -– amidst continuous opposition chants of “go Musharraf go” even after winning the support of religious parties of the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA) for the passage of the 17th Constitution Amendment that legitimised his rule, and never came back to the forum to face a repetition of the insult.

PPP parliamentary secretary Izhar Amrohvi said the president did not need any advice from the new government to call such a joint session and would be committing a violation of the Constitution by not doing it.