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| 16 March 2004 | Tuesday | 24 Muharram 1425 |
Opposition walks out of NA twice
ISLAMABAD, March 15: Opposition members walked out of the National Assembly twice on Monday to protest against the attitude of Speaker Chaudhry Amir Hussain whom they accused of partiality before the lower house resumed a debate on President Pervez Musharraf's policies.
In the first protest, only members of parties grouped in the ARD staged a token walkout after the speaker stopped PML-N member Chaudhry Abid Sher Ali from speaking about a pending privilege motion about his detention sometime back.
But the entire opposition, including the MMA, joined the ARD in the second token walkout to protest against the speaker's refusal to order the presence in the house of ARD president Javed Hashmi, who is being tried on charges of sedition and trying to incite a mutiny.
Each walkout lasted only a few minutes. The ARD and other opposition groups have continuously been demanding that the speaker should issue a production order for Mr Hashmi.
Mr Hashmi's daughter Maimoona Hashmi, who is a PML-N MNA, tried to speak about her father but was cut short by the speaker before the opposition members stormed out of the house.
Mr Sher Ali complained that he and his family members were mistreated by police when he was detained in November after he organized an anti-government protest rally in his home town of Faisalabad.
SMALL SUCCESS: In a house where hardly anything goes in its favour, the opposition won a small success on Monday when Education Minister Zubaida Jalal agreed to change the composition of the board of governors of the National Book Foundation. Initially, the minister proposed the election of five ruling coalition MNAs to be elected as board members. But PPP's Naveed Qamar opposed the motion.
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