ISLAMABAD, Oct 17: The National Assembly failed to proceed on Friday for lack of quorum, which also led to a verbal duel between sparsely occupied treasury and opposition benches.

Deputy speaker Sardar Mohammad Yaqub, who presided over the brief but troubled sitting in the absence of speaker Amir Hussain now visiting Russia, joined his ruling coalition colleague to deliver his strongest denunciation of opposition parties todate for blocking the lower house proceedings as part of their anti- LFO protest campaign.

“The opposition’s attitude today and their behaviour with the chair was not good,” Mr Yaqub said before adjourning the quorum- less house until Monday.

But he side-stepped a ruling coalition member’s demand to suspend the membership of PML-N firebrand Khwaja Mohammad Asif for allegedly insulting the chair.

The opposition countered by accusing the deputy speaker, who escaped a no-confidence move against him in July, of trying to proceed illegally.

As the house met one hour late after a two-day recess, it was evident the treasury benches had turned a deaf ear to the deputy speaker’s rebuke in the previous sitting on Tuesday for absences and his urging to them to try to maintain the quorum.

Members of parties grouped in the opposition Alliance for the Restoration of Democracy, Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal and their allies walked out of the house after their usual desk- thumping and slogan-shouting against President Pervez Musharraf and his controversial Legal Framework Order when the chair ordered the start of the question hour immediately after the recitation from the holy Quran.

But the protesters, who chanted “go Musharraf go” and “no LFO no”, left MMA deputy parliamentary leader Hafiz Hussain Ahmed to point out the lack of quorum, which he did.

Amid “shame, shame” shouts from the treasury benches about the opposition move, the deputy speaker ordered a count of members present in the house and suspended proceedings when it emerged that the quorum was missing.

MMA dissident Maulana Shah Abdul Aziz did not join the opposition walkout and, while the treasury benches awaited more members to arrive make up the quorum, was seen going over to Interior Minister Faisal Saleh Hayat, asking him about something and then handing him a paper he wrote on the spot, possibly an application, which the minister kept with himself.

The deputy speaker returned to the house about 15 minutes later to resume the proceedings, but a member of the People’s Party Parliamentarians from Islamabad, Nayyer Hussain Bokhari, was present as the only opposition member to point out the lack of quorum again while the chair kept on calling members to put questions listed for the day.

As the deputy speaker seemed trying to ignore Mr Bokhari’s point of order, Khwaja Asif barged in and shouted at the top of his voice to urge the chair not to go ahead with the proceedings after the quorum question had been raised.

“Don’t do this shouting and shrieking in the house..., you are not allowing the house to proceed,” Mr Yaqub told Khwaja Asif.

As the chair appeared to be delaying to order a second count of members, PPP-Patriots parliamentary leader Sher Afgan Niazi took up the cudgels for the treasury benches and demanded action against Khwaja Asif.

“He has been misbehaving for a long time...so he should be suspended from the house,” Mr Niazi said about the PML-N member from Sialkot district who often annoys the treasury benches by pointing out lack of quorum, which has frequently hit the National Assembly because of opposition protest walkouts and absences of many ruling coalition members.

But the deputy speaker did not seem ready to go that far and tried to pacify Mr Niazi saying he had already told the PML-N member that “his behaviour was not proper”.

In the midst of angry exchanges, MMA’s Hafiz Hussain Ahmed reappeared on the scene and accused the chair of acting illegally by not ordering the bells to be rung to call members to come to the house after he had pointed out the lack of quorum in the first instance.

“All your proceedings are illegal... you should follow rules,” he asked the chair.

By now, the deputy speaker’s seemed to have exhausted his patience and angrily blasted the opposition before adjourning the house until 5.00 pm on Monday without ordering a count of the members in the house.

He was particularly unhappy with Khwaja Asif, saying “his attitude remains aggressive”.