ISLAMABAD, May 5: In a surprise move, the ruling coalition in the National Assembly on Thursday reversed a previous lower house decision to probe police assaults on journalists rallies staged on the press freedom day. The move, which sparked an opposition protest walkout, seemed to harden the government’s stance in the ongoing row with the media only a day after ruling party assurances to redress the journalists’ grievances and hours after Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz left for a four-nation trip.

The National Assembly had unanimously passed an opposition-initiated resolution on Tuesday to condemn the use of police force to break up a journalists’ march in Islamabad marking the World Press Freedom Day and form a committee to investigate the incident.

But while National Assembly Speaker Chaudhry Amir Hussain was yet to name the committee members in consultation with the ruling and opposition parliamentary groups, the government moved for a reversal of the decision on Thursday when opposition members present in the house were in a minority and journalists were boycotting the proceedings for the third day running.

Opposition sources said Parliamentary Affairs Minister Sher Afgan suddenly moved for the withdrawal of last Tuesday’s resolution, saying that it was not necessary.

Opposition members walked out in protest as the ruling coalition used its majority to adopt the withdrawal resolution. There was no immediate explanation by the ruling coalition for its change of mind on the issue.

But it appeared to be a retaliation against continuing protests by journalists, including an altercation with Interior Minister Aftab Sherpao during a news conference on Wednesday and some hostile slogan-chanting during protests against Tuesday’s police attack on the journalists’ procession in Islamabad and a police baton-charge on a similar march in Lahore.

As the National Assembly met on Thursday for its fourth sitting of the current session with an empty press gallery, local journalists staged another sit-in outside the parliament house for several hours to press their demand for a government apology for the police attacks, an immediate action against those who ordered the action and compensation for damaged equipment like video and still cameras.

It was at the first such sit-in on Wednesday that PML President Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain came to the protesters with party Secretary-General Mushahid Hussain and assured them to redress their complaints about Tuesday’s incidents and the implementation of the seventh wage award.

Several opposition politicians, including Amin Fahim, president of the People’s Party Parliamentarians, and Privatization and Investment Minister Dr Abdul Hafeez Shaikh, were among those who visited the protest camp on Thursday.

HOLY QURAN’s TRANSLATION: Minister for Religious Affairs Ejazul Haq on Thursday informed the National Assembly that the government had ordered confiscation of the copies of Urdu translation of the Holy Quran published without Arabic text, adds APP.