Pakistan National Assembly session likely to be called next week, says Law and Information Minister Ali Zafar

Islamabad: Pakistan’s caretaker government has submitted a report to the president for convening a session of the newly-elected National Assembly which is likely to be called next week, Law and Information Minister Ali Zafar said on Wednesday. Talking to reporters outside the Supreme Court, Zafar said the National Assembly session is likely to be called between 12 August and 14 August, with the newly elected Members of National Assembly to take oath, Geo TV reported. [caption id=“attachment_4920311” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File image of Imran Khan. AFP[/caption] The appointment of the speaker and the deputy speaker of the NA will also take place during the session, he was quoted as saying by the channel. According to the law, the new session of the NA is supposed to be called before 15 August; however, the session cannot be summoned unless a notification has been issued by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP). Citing the election commission, Zafar said that the delay in the election results occurred due to the failure of the Results Transmission System (RTS), which an inquiry into the matter would prove. On 2 August, the ECP had written to the Cabinet Division asking it to constitute a committee for probing the election results software malfunction. The Elec­tion Commission on Tuesday notified the final results of the elections but withheld results of nine national and 17 provincial assembly seats, stirring a new controversy before the formation of the next government. Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf had won on four out of the nine National Aseembly seats where the results have been put on hold. Three of the nine seats had been claimed by the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz and one each by the Pakistan Peoples Party and the Balochistan Awami Party. The former cricket star was formally nominated as its candidate by the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) for the slot of prime minister. He is expected to take oath for the post on 14 or 15 August.