ISLAMABAD, Feb 28: A heated debate was witnessed in the National Assembly on Friday when the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal forced the chair to allow a tribal MNA to narrate his ordeal as to how he was abducted by agency sleuths from outside the Governor’s House in Peshawar and was kept in an underground room for 24 hours.

Earlier, the lower house also saw a pandemonium when the People’s Party Parliamentarians forcefully raised their voice against NAB Chairman Lt-Gen Munir Hafeez who they accused had maligned party chairperson Benazir Bhutto for having bank accounts in Switzerland.

Tribal MNA Maulana Abdul Malik was allowed to speak after strong pleadings by MMA’s parliamentary leader Qazi Hussain Ahmed, Maulana Fazlur Rahman, Hafiz Hussain Ahmed and Liaqat Baloch. They all had refuses Speaker Chaudhry Amir Hussain’s plea that the privilege motion be deferred till Monday when the house will meet again.

While narrating the episode of his meeting with the NWFP governor and then being whisked away by some unknown persons to an unknown place, the tribal MNA said he was put to extreme disrespect, and threatened that if his respect was not restored, he would feel free to use the option of going back to lead protest processions and might decide even to turn against Pakistan.

The MNA, reciting a verse from the Holy Quran, said that no one on the earth could force him to vote against his conscience, which according to him was the objective of his abductors.

Abdul Malik said he along with two other MNAs were taken to a basement where the captors pressed them to vote for certain candidates naming Ayub, Iqbal and some others and not to go for those supported by the MMA, otherwise they would be made ‘example’ for others.

He said:”The claims that the democracy has been restored was falsified by the act of intimidation and coercion of the popularly elected members of the highest and sacred institution of National Assembly.”

Earlier, Hafiz Hussain Ahmed had sought to move the privilege motion on the abduction of MNAs and repeatedly requested the chair to hear the ordeal of the victim members.

However, religio-political alliance’s parliamentary leader Qazi Hussain Ahmed taking the floor said the matter was so important that whole of the house business could be sacrificed for this. He stressed that the affected tribal MNA be allowed to tell their story of intimidation by the security personnel.

He said that since this incident had negatively affected the MMA in Senate elections, it cannot be deferred to another time at any cost.

Federal Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed on a point of explanation said the procedure of a privilege motion was that the concerned minister in-charge must be informed in advance to enable him bring the relevant record to explain government’s point of view.

MMA Secretary-General Maulana Fazlur Rahman also joined the fray to impress upon the speaker that the issue should not be taken lightly since it was related to a sensitive area of Pakistan.

Earlier, Parliamentarians women MNA Naheed Khan caused a lot of furor while she criticising the NAB chairman for his latest outburst against Benazir Bhutto.

Standing on a point of order, she asked the government to replace Gen Munir Hafeez for what she claimed the baseless allegations against her party chairperson Benazir Bhutto.