14 September 2004	Tuesday	28 Rajab 1425

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ISLAMABAD, Sept 13: The National Assembly speaker on Monday disallowed a debate on anti-militant military action in South Waziristan tribal area, provoking an opposition walkout and an embarrassing lack of quorum that cut short the house proceedings.

Speaker Chaudhry Amir Hussain went with the government's viewpoint in rejecting five adjournment motions seeking a debate on the latest military operations around the South Waziristan agency headquarters town of Wana where more than 60 people were reported killed since Thursday.

But a brief discussion on the admissibility of the motions enabled opposition members to denounce and Interior Minister Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao to defend the military action that the government says is directed against foreign militants hiding in the area bordering Afghanistan and their local helpers.

"Stop Wana operation", "zalimo jawab do, khoon ka hisab do" (reply oppressors, give an account of blood), chanted opposition members before storming out of the house after the speaker ruled their adjournment motions out of order on the ground that the matter could not be raised again after it had already been discussed in the house on the first day of the current session on Friday, which also saw a partial opposition walkout.

Friday's walkout was joined by only the MMA and the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) while the People's Party Parliamentarians (PPP) had stayed inside the house. But all opposition parties joined Monday's walkout, which broke the quorum of the house that the ruling coalition failed to complete even after the speaker allowed an unusual wait for about one and a half hours.

OPPOSITION REVENGE: In a move to avenge the speaker's ruling, the opposition parties did not return to the house though one of them, PPP secretary-general Raja Pervez Ashraf, remained inside the house to point out the lack of the required quorum of 86 members in the 342-seat house when the chair tried to carry on the proceedings.

The absence of a majority of ruling coalition members from the house hours after Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz had left for Tajikistan to attend a summit conference of the Economic Cooperation Organisation foiled a government plan to rush through an important bill designed to punish nuclear proliferation.