President Arif Alvi’s attempt to force the Election Commission of Pakistan to decide the allocation of women’s and minorities’ reserved seats in the National Assembly, seemed to a case of throwing out the baby with the bathwater. His refusal to sign off on the summary summoning the National Assembly’s inaugural session on Thursday would have meant that it would have gone beyond the 21 days prescribed after the general election by the Constitution. However, the outgoing Speaker of the House, Raja Pervez Ashraf, issued the summons instead, and thus averted yet another delay breaking a constitutionally prescribed limit. As it is, the elections took place after a delay of about three months beyond the constitutionally prescribed 90 days, on the plea of delimitations according to the 2023 census.
President Alvi himself is on borrowed time, for his five-year tenure expired in September, leaving him to continue in office until a successor is elected. Since that awaits the summoning of the National Assembly, which would proceed to elect a new President on March 9, President Alvi’s attempt at achieving a delay could be construed as putting off the dread day. He has shown himself subject to that peculiarly unfortunate temptation of flouting even the letter of the Constitution, let alone the spirit, merely for personal or partisan benefit. It is difficult to see what partisan benefit the delay would gain, unless it was to delay the inevitable defeat of the PTI in the PM’s election. The wish to avoid having to administer oath of office to Mian Shehbaz Sharif as Prime Minister can at best be described as childish, at worst not befitting the high office of President.
The fear of just such a situation of the framers of the Constitution can be seen by the constitutional provision under which the Speaker has summoned the House. If the President does not summon the House, the House must meet. All the President can do is summon it to meet earlier. The session that meets will be in the nature of a requisitioned session, which cannot be prorogued by the President, but by the Speaker. THere could be some nice disputes as to who could summon or prorogue once a new government and a new President take office, but the President could have taken a less partisan approach in carrying out what will be among the last of his official actions.
