LAHORE, Jan 7: The Punjab Assembly did not see any "traditional altercation" between the treasury and opposition benches, as the latter indulged in an internal conflict on Wednesday.

The scene was created when immediately after the proceedings started in the morning session of the house, MMA's defected MPA Fayyazul Hassan Chauhan stood on a point of order to clarify his statement that MMA had received $2 billion for signing the LFO agreement.

He claimed he had said in his Rawalpindi press conference a couple of days ago that he could level such an allegation. "I had just presented my views on the issue, which I had been believing for the last one year."

The MPA said he had been expelled from the Jamaat-i-Islami for casting vote in favour of Gen Musharraf in the trust vote. They (MMA leaders) did not have the courage to present their stance before their constituents, he added.

He said he would announce his future course of action after consulting his voters within a month. At this point, deputy opposition leader Rana Sanaullah Khan took the floor and said Mr Chauhan must be asked from where he had got information about the $2 billion deal. "Who had briefed him on the subject?" he asked.

Saying that no one was allowed to level allegations against any member in the house, he demanded the chair that he should rule whether an accuser could withdraw his accusations. The chair, being held by Speaker Afzal Sahi, ruled that such affairs should not be discussed in the house, and every member should feel his responsibility and avoid repeating such allegations in future.

PPP's Samiullah Khan said ideological and political differences among various members of a party were possible, but Mr Chauhan had called MMA leader Maulana Fazlur Rahman "Maulvi Diesel" and Hafiz Husain Ahmad "Maulvi Joker," which was unbecoming. As MMA parliamentary leader Asghar Gujjar took the floor, the speaker, in an attempt to calm him down, said Samiullah had talked of it only to provoke him.