ISLAMABAD, Sept 26: A Senate special committee on privileges on Friday asked Islamabad authorities to prevent recurrence of incidents like an altercation between two rival women parliamentarians outside the Parliament House on Tuesday.

But, a Senate statement about a committee meeting did not make it clear whether the issue of verbal clash between Senator Gulshan Saeed of the ruling PML-Q and National Assembly member Naheed Khan of the PPP had been disposed of or any further action was contemplated.

It said the committee, headed by former law minister Khalid Ranjha, met on Friday afternoon to consider the PML-Q senator’s privilege motion about the alleged misbehaviour of the PPP member at the main gate of the Parliament House.

“The special committee took strong notice of the untoward incident and directed the authorities concerned to take appropriate steps to avoid the recurrence of such incidents in future,” the statement said.

Naheed Khan, on her part, had sent a complaint to the National Assembly speaker demanding registration of a murder attempt case against Gulshan Saeed for allegedly asking her driver to run over opposition parliamentarians who were protesting against President Gen Pervez Musharraf’s speech in the UN General Assembly. There was no official word yet of any action on that complaint.

The Senate statement said Gulshan Saeed informed the committee that she, along with a colleague, was coming to file some questions with the Senate secretariat around 12:30pm when Naheed Khan blocked her entry into the Parliament House by stopping her car.

It quoted the Senator as also accusing the PPP member of using abusive language against her, the president and Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali and paying no heed to her request to be allowed to enter the building.

At that time, she said some members of the Senate and the National Assembly intervened and took the PPP member away.

The statement quoted Gulshan Saeed as also accusing law enforcement authorities of failing to remove what she called an obstruction created by the woman MNA as a result of which, she said, the ugly situation arose.

“The committee was informed by the administration that elaborate measures for security of honourable members were taken (on that day) and the traffic was diverted via (the nearby) Cabinet Block,” the statement said.

It said senior officers of the interior, law, justice and parliamentary affairs ministries and of the local administration, including the inspector-general of Islamabad police, were also present at the committee meeting at the parliament building.

Amir Wasim Adds: The People’s Party Parliamentarians (PPP) MNA Naheed Khan threatened to move court against Senator Gulshan Saeed, if an attempt to murder case was not registered against the latter.

Talking to Dawn at the cafeteria of the Parliament House on Friday, the PPP MNA said she had decided to take the matter to a court, as it was not a mere clash but a serious “attempt to kill some protesting opposition MNAs.”

Ms Naheed claimed that she had received injuries in the Tuesday’s incident when the PML-Q Senator Gulshan Saeed “tried to run her car over the opposition MNAs.”

The PPP MNA said the committee formed in the Senate to probe the incident was a one-sided affair, as it comprised only treasury members and she did not recognize any such body.

She demanded immediate registration of a case against the ruling party senator.

The PPP parliamentary leader in Senate, Mian Raza Rabbani, also condemned the Tuesday’s incident and said it had exposed the real face of the regime.

Mr Rabbani said the Senate committee, formed to probe the incident, was in urgency of holding a meeting. He said a similar committee was also formed when some “agencies people” ransacked the house of opposition Senator Sadia Abbassi.