March, 16 2005	Wednesday	5 Safar 1426

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ISLAMABAD, March 15: Speaker Chaudhry Amir Hussain adjourned the National Assembly proceedings 15 minutes after the house met on Tuesday as a majority of the members failed to reach the Parliament House due to road blockades on account of Pakistan Day parade rehearsal and the president’s movement.

Speaking on a point of order, People’s Party Parliamentarians MNA from Gujranwala Imtiaz Safdar Warraich asked the speaker to take notice of the situation as armed troops were posted at the gates of the Parliament Lodges and they did not allow the MNAs to leave for the Parliament House.

He said even the treasury members had failed to make their way to parliament, which was evident from the fact that only three of them were present in the house.

Mr Warraich said police and armymen had blocked roads, including those leading to the Parliament House, at various points, causing great inconvenience not only to commuters but to the parliamentarians also. He said parliament was already under siege (by army) and now they had come to the Parliament Lodges as well. He asked the speaker to take steps to address the situation.

The speaker directed Parliamentary Affairs Minister Dr Sher Afgan to talk to the people concerned to avoid such a situation in future. He asked the minister to make adjustment in such a way that there could be no disruption in the assembly proceedings as well as the parade rehearsal.

Earlier, Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal MNA Maulana Abdul Akbar Chitrali asked the speaker to adjourn the session as some members had gone or wanted to go to attend the funeral of late MNA from Panjgoor Maulana Rehmatullah, who died in Karachi on Monday.

The parliamentary affairs minister opposed the move and said it was a precedent that the session was adjourned once in case of the death of an MNA. As the proceedings were suspended due to the death of Maulana Rehmatullah on Monday, there was no need to adjourn the session again, he said.

However, in a move to avoid possible embarrassment due to lack of quorum, the chief whip of the Pakistan Muslim League, Sardar Nasrullah Dreshak, asked the speaker to adjourn the proceedings, but with the ruling that it would not be made a precedent.

On Mr Dreshak’s recommendation, the speaker adjourned the session till Wednesday afternoon.

Only 12 members were present in the house at the time.

Later, the speaker summoned Defence Minister Rao Sikandar Iqbal in his chamber and directed him to coordinate with the authorities concerned in the army to make an adjustment of time so that there could be no hurdles in the assembly proceedings and the parade rehearsal.

Meanwhile, talking to Dawn, PPP Secretary-General MNA Raja Pervez Ashraf said the opposition had decided to move privilege motions in the National Assembly as its members had been stopped from going to the Parliament House.