Joint sitting of parliament put off once again.

ISLAMABAD -- National Assembly SpeAaAker Raja Pervaiz Ashraf on Wednesday once again put off the joint sitting of parliament, scheduled to be held today (Thursday), for another month without giving any reason as the two houses of parliament, according to an official announcement, will now meet on December 20.

The notification in this regard said the speaker had delayed the joint sitting exercising his 'powers conferred by proviso to Rule 4 of the Parliament (Joint Sittings) Rules 1973'.

This is for the fifth time that the speaker had delayed the joint sitting, which had been convened by President Dr Arif Alvi on May 26, without assigning any reason.

The last joint sitting of the parliament was held on October 11 in which the government had carried out a routine legislative work and passed three bills - Dyslexia Special Measures Bill 2022, Trade Organisations (Amendment) Bill 2022 and the Islamabad Capital Territory Domestic Workers Bill 2022. After accomplishing the task, instead of proroguing the joint sitting, the speaker had announced adjournment till Nov 18.

On Oct 6, the government, however, convened a special joint session for the mandatory presidential address and Dr Alvi had delivered his speech amid boycott by the treasury and the opposition members.

President Alvi had in the past remained a target of severe criticism...