ISLAMABAD, Feb 25: National Assembly Speaker Chaudhry Amir Hussain saved the day for the ruling coalition on Friday by refusing a vote on a government motion , but his rescue mission sparked a protest walkout and cut short house proceedings.

The opposition had pressed for a visible vote on the delayed presentation of a standing committee report on a bill seeking to amend the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority Ordinance, 2002, at a time when the treasury benches did not seem to in majority.

The speaker ruled in favour of the presentation of the report on the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (Amendment) Bill by Ahmed Raza Maneka, chairman of the house committee on cabinet secretariat, on the basis of a voice vote that he thought was in favour of the government move. But in an apparent move to embarrass the government, MMA chief Qazi Hussain Ahmed insisted that the speaker must have a visible count of votes while all opposition members, including those of the ARD, stood up in their seats.

The speaker, however, refused to change his ruling. "When I have given the ruling you cannot challenge it," he said before the opposition members marched out of the house in protest against his alleged partiality.

However, one opposition member, Nawab Yousuf Talpur of the People's Party Parliamentarians (PPP), stayed back to point out a perceived lack of quorum in the house as the speaker said he would go ahead with the remaining business on the agenda until its adjournment before the time for Friday prayers.

But in swift change of mind, the speaker averted what could have been another embarrassment for the government by immediately adjourning the house till 3pm on Monday instead of ordering for a count of members present or for ringing of bells so that members present outside the hall could come back to complete the quorum of at least one-fourth, or 86 members, in the 342-seat house.

This was the second opposition walkout of the day in protest against the attitude of the speaker. The first was a token walkout by only ARD members during the question-hour after PPP member Sherry Rehman complained of bias by the chair for disallowing her supplementary questions.

Apparently with the agreement of both the treasury and opposition benches, the speaker had earlier said that there would be no speeches on Friday in the three-day debate on the Balochistan situation.

The government on Friday also introduced two bills seeking to amend the Pakistan Tobacco Board Ordinance, 1968, and regulate the manufacture, import, export, storage, distribution and sale of Tibb-i-Unani, Ayurvedic, homoeopathic, herbal and any other non-allopathic medicine.

The house also received a report of its standing committee on finance and revenue on an already introduced bill designed to provide for the elimination of revenue deficit and reduction of public debt to a prudent level through an efficient public debt management.