Islamabad: As Pakistan's hard-line religious parties finalised their alliance with former premier Benazir Bhutto's party to clinch a deal to form a government, President Pervez Musharraf mulled postponement of the National Assembly session to be held on November 8.

However there was no official comment on the reports that Musharraf would delay the scheduled convening of the new Parliament. Significantly, the Parliament's inauguration has not been officially notified in the government gazette, and no elected member has received official notification or invitation.

The pro-Musharraf Pakistan Muslim League-Qaide Azam (PML-Q), which appeared to have lost the race to form government due to its failure to secure majority, had appealed to Musharraf to postpone inaugural session of the National Assembly fixed for November 8.

PML (Q), which won the largest number of seats in the October 10 elections, sent its plea to the government as the political parties failed to come up with a "credible" alliance to form the government.

Parliamentary leader of PML (Q), Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, said in a statement last night that the National Assembly session should be postponed.

"Through a consultative process with the representatives of major political parties in the National Assembly we have reached a finding that it may not be suitable to convene the National Assembly on Friday," he said.

Pakistan media was full of reports on November 6 that the postponement was imminent and a daily 'Pakistan Observer' went to the extent of saying the government has already postponed the session.

PTI