House remained almost empty during President Arif Alvi’s address

The House remained almost empty during President Arif Alvi’s address to the joint session of Parliament on Thursday.

Only PTI defectors and Balochistan Awami Party senators were present in the House. Only 14 members were present in the 442-member House during the President’s address.

President Dr Arif Alvi, in his address to the joint session of the Parliament, called on politicians to end growing polarisation in the country and decide on an election date by coming together.

“People can only be united if politicians are united,” he said, highlighting that eliminating differences was the “need of the hour”.

Mushahid Hussain Syed, Rabiya Qamar, Jawaria Akhtar, Kishore Zahra, Riaz Mazari, Saira Bano, Naseema Ehsan Shah were present in the House.

Dr. Afzal Dhandla, Anwarul Haque Kakar, Sarfraz Bugti, Ghous Bakhsh Meher were also present in the House.

PML-N, Pakistan People’s Party and JUI have observed unannounced boycott of the address of the President.

Interestingly, Tehreek-e-Insaf MPs boycotted their own President’s address.

The PTI MPs said that they do not believe in the current assembly, so they boycotted.

The Speaker instructed the members to go to their seats.

President @ArifAlvi’s complicit in unconstitutional efforts to sabotage vote of no confidence. Violating constitution & his oath in order to undermine transfer of power. Therefore PPP joined allies in boycotting his address. We demand efforts to impeach him must begin asap.

— BilawalBhuttoZardari (@BBhuttoZardari) October 6, 2022

After the president’s address, Foreign Minister and PPP chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari took to Twitter and demanded Alvi’s impeachment.

Bilawal Bhutto said “President Arif Alvi’s complicit in unconstitutional efforts to sabotage vote of no confidence. Violating constitution & his oath in order to undermine transfer of power. Therefore PPP joined allies in boycotting his address. We demand efforts to impeach him must begin asap.”