March 4, 2003	Tuesday	Zul Hijjah 30, 1423

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ISLAMABAD, March 3: Walkout after walkout by protesting opposition parties in the National Assembly on Monday failed to force the government to an immediate debate on alleged abduction of some tribal members of the lower house before last week’s Senate election.

The walkouts came after speaker Chaudhry Amir Hussain agreed to Interior Minister Faisal Saleh Hayat’s request for a week’s delay to take up the issue that sparked bitter exchanges between the opposition and treasury benches.

The speaker rejected a demand from the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA) for immediately taking up a privilege motion signed by 33 of its MNAs on the alleged abduction of three tribal MNAs last Tuesday after they had met the NWFP governor Syed Iftikhar Hussain.

MMA secretary-general Maulana Fazlur Rehman led his alliance members in storming of the National Assembly hall accusing the speaker of being a party to what he called government’s plan to delay a debate on an important issue.

Minutes later, members of the People’s Party Parliamentarians (PPP) also walked out in sympathy after the party’s deputy leader Makhdoom Shah Mahmood Qureshi accused the speaker of trying to bale out the government on what he called a “weighty” standpoint of the MMA.

The PPP was followed by the members of the Pakistan Muslim League-N led by their protesting leader Makhdoom Javed Hashmi.

However, members of all the three groups returned to the house after about half an hour following persuasion by members of the treasury benches led by their chief whip and Labour, Manpower and Overseas Pakistanis Minister Abdul Sattar Laleka.

Laleka thanked the opposition parties for ending their walkout, but stuck to the interior minister’s demand — to which the speaker agreed again — that the house wait for a week before the federal government receives a detailed report about the abduction issue from the Frontier provincial authorities.

But in the heat of the moment it was unclear whether it would be possible to discuss the matter before the assembly’s first regular session after its election four months ago is adjourned before the mourning period of Ashura.

The government-opposition tussle over the question arose after Interior Minister Hayat said that without receiving a detailed report from the Frontier province, he could not take a position on whether to oppose or agree to a highly controversial issue being referred for probe by a privileges committee, which is yet to be formed.

In angry remarks after the opposition parties had walked out, he threatened to expose what he called “other difficulties” that could have prompted the opposition protests.

“God-willing, those of their difficulties will be disclosed in the daylight,” he said without elaborating.

The MMA’s privilege motion, which was tabled in the last sitting of the house on Friday, accused unidentified intelligence agents of picking up three National Assembly members from outside the Governor’s House in Peshawar on Tuesday to force them to vote for pro-government candidates in the Senate election.

A rival motion by a pro-government member complained of breach of privilege by what he called confinement of six tribal MNAs at the official residence of Frontier Chief Minister Mohammad Akram Khan Durrani for several days before the vote for the Senate.

A total of 12 MNAs from the Federally Administered Tribal Areas had elected eight Senators from the northwestern tribal agencies on Feb 27 when the whole National Assembly also elected four Senators from the Islamabad capital territory to complete the composition of the 100-seat upper house.

The MMA says the six MNAs had stayed at the chief minister’s house of their own free will to save themselves from being abducted. Three of them were allegedly picked up by intelligence agencies after their meeting with the provincial governor.

The walkouts were the first by opposition parties since the session started on Feb 26.

Maulana Fazlur Rehman said earlier the issue should be discussed immediately and not deferred or a committee should be formed to take up the issue.

He said the government and the Inter-Service Intelligence (ISI) was involved in the abduction of three tribal MNAs.

The MMA leader wondered why the interior minister was reluctant to comment on a motion moved five days ago.