President Dr. Arif Alvi called a joint sitting of both the Houses of Parliament on Thursday, October 6 at 5 pm.
According to the statement issued by Rashtrapati Bhavan in this regard, the President will address the joint session of Parliament.
The statement said that a joint session of Parliament has been called under Articles 54(1) and 56(3) of the Constitution.
It should be noted that despite the start of the last parliamentary year of the National Assembly on 14 August, the obligatory address of the President to a joint session of Parliament has not yet been delivered.
Article 56(3) of the Constitution states that at the opening of the first session of the National Assembly after every general election and the opening of the first session of every year, the President shall simultaneously address both the Houses and shall summon Parliament. Will inform the reasons for the summons.
Earlier, a report in the Dawn newspaper quoted sources in the Presidency as saying that the employees concerned had already drafted the address.
He had said that as per the past practice, he had sent letters to all the ministries asking the President to apprise him of the performance of the last parliamentary year and the speech has been prepared after getting input from all the ministries.
President Arif Alvi had earlier come under attack from opposition parties for allegedly weakening Parliament by issuing a record number of ordinances under the PTI government.
When the Supreme Court invalidated the notification regarding the appointment of members of the Election Commission of Pakistan and the extension of the tenure of Army Chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa, the opposition also threatened to move a motion for his impeachment.
Later, President Arif Alvi refused to administer the oath to Shehbaz Sharif, who was elected Prime Minister of the country after Imran Khan was removed from office through a no-confidence vote in April this year.
Furthermore, he once again came under criticism when he refused to approve electoral reforms and the NAB amendment bills, despite the approval of the National Assembly and Senate.
Arif Alvi has addressed Parliament four times since assuming power in September 2018, when his party, PTI, was ruling the country, and has always praised PTI.
Parliamentary experts say that this time the President will face a different situation as he will have to evaluate the performance of two different governments.