24 August 2004	Tuesday	07 Rajab 1425

Please Visit our Sponsor (Ads open in separate window).

ISLAMABAD, Aug 23: Opposition parties walked out of the National Assembly twice on Monday to protest against the absence of ministers from the lower house and the attitude of speaker Chaudhry Amir Hussain.

All opposition parties joined the first token walkout during the question hour when they complained that ministers were not present to give proper answers to their questions and accused parliamentary secretary for commerce Mazhar Hussain of being non- serious while he seemed unprepared to reply to supplementary questions relating to his ministry.

The speaker's advice to show some accommodation for the parliamentary secretary until he gained sufficient experience of his job failed to move the protesters who left the house, only to return after several minutes' absence.

From the ministers, only Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Mohammad Raza Hayat Hiraj was present in the house during the question hour. However, Interior Minister Faisal Saleh Hayat came to the house later. Parliamentary Secretary for Defence Tanveer Hussain Syed attributed the ministers' absence to the presence of Afghan President Hamid Karzai.

The second walkout only by the Alliance for the Restoration of Democracy (ARD) came at the fag-end of a brief session after the speaker dismissed a demand by some members of the People's Party Parliamentarians (PPP) to set up a house committee to investigate the activities of the private Bahria Town housing firm near Rawalpindi.

PPP secretary-general Raja Pervez Ashraf said three people were killed earlier in the day in a shootout after what he called an attack by the Bahria Town operators on a village near Rawalpindi.

Police earlier said two security guards were killed in the shootout in Rawat village. Mr Ashraf blamed the firm for the death of "three innocent people" and urged the speaker to form a special committee of the house the inquire into what he called land-grabbing in the area.

Both he and PPP member Khurshid Ahmed Shah said this incident would not have taken place if the speaker had acted on an opposition demand during a previous National Assembly session to set up committee to probe the Bahria Town affairs.

SHAUKAT AZIZ: Earlier, the speaker reserved his ruling after a controversy erupted on whether Shaukat Aziz continued to be the finance minister after he resigned from the Senate on Friday to take oath as a lower house member.

The speaker first seemed ready to give a ruling after the matter was raised by Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal member Liaquat Baloch, who pointed to several printed answers to members' questions listed on Monday's agenda were entered in the name of Shaukat Aziz as the finance minister. But he later hesitated and said he was reserving his ruling for the time being.

Mr Baloch said there should be an authoritative explanation of whether Mr Aziz, who became finance minister as a member of the Senate, continued to hold that office after he resigned from the upper house and took oath as a National Assembly to qualify for the promised office of prime minister.

MEDICAL AID BILL: The speaker referred a government medical aid bill back to house standing committee on health with the agreement of the treasury and opposition benches.

MMA's Liaquat Baloch and PPP's Aitzaz Ahsan said they had no objection to the objectives of bill, which provides for immediate medical aid to be given to a seriously injured person in a hospital without waiting for medico-legal procedures to be completed, but wanted clarification of some points and removal of some perceived ambiguities.

Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Mohammad Raza Hayat Hiraj, who piloted the bill in the absence of Health Minister Mohammad Nasir Khan, agreed to a review of the bill by the standing committee on health, which had earlier recommended its passage.

The speaker also deferred separate privilege motions moved by two PPP members from Sindh, Nawab Mohammad Yousuf Talpur and Pir Aftab Hussain Shah Jilani, who complained that irrigation water supplies to their lands had been cut off because of political vendetta. Interior Minister Faisal Saleh Hayat promised to call for reports on both complaints. The house was adjourned until 5.30pm on Tuesday.