Postponement of joint session of Parliament confirms govt’s defeat: Opposition claims

ISLAMABAD Nov 11,2021

The Opposition leaders are terming the government’s decision of postponing the joint Parliament session as their victory.

The ruling party struggled to ensure the presence of required number of members and due to reservations shown by its allies over the proposed electoral reforms bills regarding the use of electronic voting machine (EVM) and introduction of I-voting for overseas Pakistanis in the next polls.

President Arif Alvi one day before, had withdrew the order for a joint session of the parliament, scheduled for 11 am today (Thursday).

Speaking at the Parliament House, PML-N President and Opposition Leader in National Assembly Shehbaz Sharif has said that the adjournment of the joint session of the Parliament means that the government has been badly beaten on its ‘black laws’ it sought to bully through the Parliament.

“Imran should resign after it was clearly exposed that he had lost the trust of his members and allies,” he added.

“The hasty convening of the joint meeting and then the hasty adjournment shows the seriousness of the government that had made sensitive and serious issues like legislation a child’s play, he said.

Earlier, talking to media at the Parliament House, Shehbaz Sharif said that the government lost twice in the Parliament and the joint opposition had more votes than the government.

He said, PTI wanted to repeat what they did in 2018 through RTS by bringing a bill with electronic voting machine. “The united opposition was constantly saying that these black laws will not be passed and the government’s own allies were not with them on this issue, and were distancing themselves from PTI completely, he added.

Shehbaz Sharif said that the postponement of the joint session of the Parliament proves that the government has confirmed its defeat on legislation of black laws.

‘Kaptaan bhag gaya’ – Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari

Commenting on the development, PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari said that the government opted out of the Parliament’s joint session as it had “foreseen its defeat”.

Taking to Twitter, Bilawal said “Kaptaan bhag gaya” (the captain ran away), as he shared President Arif Alvi’s notification for the postponement of the session.

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Fear of betrayal by the members of parliament?

Daily Jang reported that the decision to adjourn the sitting was taken at the last minute due to fear of betrayal by the members of parliament. Due to this fear the government decided to adjourn the sitting at the last minute.

Fear of recurrence of what happened in the National Assembly on Tuesday has frightened the government into introducing controversial legislation unilaterally through a joint sitting of parliament, according to details.

Hours before the announcement of the abrupt adjournment of the meeting, Prime Minister Imran Khan publicly asked the ruling coalition’s legislators to “jihad” by approving their electoral reforms, which the mafia of opposition parties, which is corrupt The products of the system are, strongly rejected.