Parliamentary Affairs Minister Sher Afgan exactly eight days back announced that the National Assembly would be meeting on April 23. This announcement was broadcast prominently by television channels and established in newspapers.
But the National Assembly Secretariat has not as yet received the summons for the commencement of the session. In the meantime, the Prime Minister has left on official visit of China. He may come back well before that date - April 23 - and then the notification of the Assembly's session could perhaps be issued.
However, it is stated in the NA Rules of Procedure that "when the period between the summoning of the Assembly and the date on which it is required to meet is of less than 10 days, the Secretary of the Assembly shall also cause the particulars to be announced over the radio and on the television."
Implicit in this rule is the generality that the summons should be received at least 10 days in advance of the session. Although as a precedent, session dates are also announced only two or three days in advance, this may not be consistent with Rule 3(2) of Assembly Rules.
An important point to be noted is that only the NA Secretary is authorised to issue a notification, announcing the date of the Assembly session, but this time the Parliamentary Affairs Minister announced April 23 as the date on which the Assembly is likely to meet.
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