Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly Shehbaz Sharif wrote a letter to National Assembly Speaker Asad Qaiser on Wednesday highlighting government’s double standards on the proposed legislation, reported 24NewsHD TV channel.
A delegation of opposition leaders called on National Assembly Speaker Asad Qaiser in his chamber during the joint session of the parliament and handed over the letter written by Shehbaz Sharif.
In the letter, the PML-N president said that he had provided a comprehensive proposal to achieve consensus on the bills. "Unfortunately, no response was received from your side which creates doubts about your intentions," he said.
"Instead of considering our proposal to achieve consensus on the bills, late last night we received less than 16 hours notice from your office that the joint sitting of Parliament had been called to meet at 12pm today. Is this how consensus on issues of national importance is achieved?" he asked.
He said that the bills being considered today included amendments to the election laws. "We want to remind you that in the history of Pakistan, legislation regarding elections has never been done in this unilateral manner; election laws have always been made with extensive consultation and consensus with all parties in parliament," Shehbaz said.
"Your partisan conduct in handling these bills of national importance and the joint sitting removed our confidence in you as custodian of the House. We therefore demand that you take immediate action to rectify this egregious wrong before today's joint sitting is convened," he wrote.