December 9, 2003	Tuesday	Shawwal 14, 1424

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ISLAMABAD, Dec 8: A noisy walkout by opposition parties from the Senate on Monday cost them several proposed bills and motions declared by the chair to have lapsed because of the absence of their sponsors.

But the loss was partly compensated as the two Awami National Party’s senators joined the combined opposition’s walkout for the first time, though citing a different reason, after heated exchanges between the treasury and opposition benches on the second sitting of the present session.

The session’s first private members’ day was also marked by a debate on complaints about the Water and Power Development Authority (reported elsewhere), the introduction of five private bills proposed by ruling coalition members and an unusual request by leader of house Wasim Sajjad to chairman Mohammedmian Soomro to write to Prime Minister Zafarullah Khan Jamali to ensure presence of cabinet ministers in the house.

A furore started immediately after some ruling coalition senators rose on points of order in an apparent move to upstage an opposition move to let one of its members make a speech before walking out of the house.

The chairman allowed PML-Q Senator Mrs Roshan Khursheed Bharucha from Balochistan to speak on the reported kidnap last week of four women, including two nurses of a private hospital, rather than let ANP leader Asfandyar Wali to speak.

The opposition reconciled to let Mrs Bharocha speak about her concern about the four women kidnapped while travelling from Mastung district to Quetta but burst into an uproar when the chairman allowed another ruling party senator, rather than the ANP chief, to speak.

However, on getting the floor, Mr Khan, who recently visited Afghanistan at the head of a party delegation, accused the Pakistani government of not making a serious effort for the release of Pakistani prisoners held there.

Speaking of his meetings in Kabul with President Hamid Karzai and other Afghan officials, he told the house that he got a promise for the immediate release of 50 prisoners despite what he called obstacles from the Pakistan embassy there.

The ANP president offered to get all Pakistani prisoners back home if the Islamabad was prepared to have them scrutinized before their eventual release.

Some 10 ruling coalition senators kept shouting during the speech by the ANP chief, some accusing him of distracting attention from the plight of four abducted women.

But Mr Asfandyar Wali surprised them when he said the opposition was walking out in sympathy with the abducted women.

Water and Power Minister Aftab Ahmad Khan Sherpao and PML-Q senator Javed Ashraf, a former chief of Inter-Services Intelligence, both joined to reject the ANP leader’s charge of the government’s indifference about the prisoners.

Mr Sherpao, who cited his own talks with Afghan authorities during a visit to Kabul, said the Pakistani government was in constant touch with Kabul and asked the opposition not to politicise the issue.

Several ruling coalition senators also voiced concern about the kidnapped women in Balochistan before Mr Wasim Sajjad assured them that he would convey their sentiments to Interior Minister Faisal Saleh Hayat, who was not present in the house.

The chair referred five private bills introduced by as many ruling members to relevant standing committees of the house.

These were the Dowry and Marriage Gifts (Restriction Bill), the Specific Relief (Amendment) Bill, and Supreme Court of Pakistan (Power to Review) Bill of PML-Q’s Chaudhry Mohammad Anwar Bhinder, the Code of Civil Procedure (Amendment) Bill of MQM’s Babar Khan Ghori, and the Donation and Transplantation of Human Organs Bill of PML-Q’s Shahzad Waseem.

The bills declared having lapsed included PPP Senator Farhatullah Babar’s the Punishment of High Treason Bill that had proposed the punishment of life imprisonment for subversion of the constitution by use of force or other unconstitutional means. The others were the Service Tribunals (Amendment) Bill and the Banking Companies (Amendment) Bill of PPP parliamentary leader Raza Rabbani, the Constitution (Amendment) Bill of Sanaullah Baloch of the BNP (Mengal), and Mr Babar’s the Pakistan Army (Amendment) Bill.

The house was adjourned until 5.30 p.m. on Wednesday.