President to address joint session of Parliament on April 16

ISLAMABAD: President Asif Ali Zardari has convened a joint session of Parliament on Tuesday, April 16 at 4:00 PM, the Press Office of the Presidency House said in a statement.
According to the statement, the President will address a joint meeting of Parliament at the beginning of the parliamentary year after the general election under Article 56(3) of the Constitution.
In the meantime, he convened a joint meeting of the Parliament according to Article 54 paragraph 1 and Article 56 paragraph 3 of the Constitution.
It should be noted that this will be the first joint session after the start of the new parliamentary year in the country after both the upper and lower houses have their members elected constitutionally following the conduct of general elections.
Despite elections being held on 8 February and former President Arif Alvi still in office, he was unable to convene a joint session as the Senate elections had yet to take place.
President Zardari convened a joint session weeks after taking the presidential oath and successfully conducting the Senate polls.
Earlier, former President Alvi called a joint session of Parliament on October 6, 2022 – months after a coalition government led by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif ruled the Centre.
However, the then President Alvi called the meeting to start the last parliamentary year of the then National Assembly in 2022.
In his address to parliament – ​​marked by an unannounced boycott by the Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N), the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and Jamiata Ulema-e-Islam Fazl (JUI-F) – the former president stressed the need for dialogue and urged an end to polarisation. amid the country’s growing political instability,
Some PTI defectors were also present in the hall. Balochistan Awami Party legislators were also present.
On the other hand, the PTI MPs in Parliament said that they boycotted the session as they had no faith in the then assembly. Out of 422, only 14 MPs were in the hall during the President’s speech.