September 16, 2006	Saturday	Sha'aban 22, 1427

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

ISLAMABAD, Sept 15: Some members of the People’s Party Parliamentarians (PPP) on Friday staged a walkout at the National Assembly when Speaker Chaudhry Amir Hussain did not allow party MNA Naheed Khan to speak on the issue of alleged political victimisation of party chairperson Benazir Bhutto.

As soon as the speaker said he would not allow Ms Khan to speak on a point of order, several PPP members stood up and demanded that the speaker should give floor to Ms Khan. After protesting for some minutes, Ms Khan staged a walkout with a group of party MNAs. Interestingly, some of the PPP MNAs remained in the house and continued asking the speaker to allow them to speak.

Later, speaking at a news conference in the chamber of the opposition leader in the Senate Raza Rabbani, the PPP MNAs condemned the “partial attitude” of the speaker and warned that they would not let the speaker run the house in the same manner in future.

Naheed Khan said she wanted to draw the attention of the house towards some press reports that the government had contacted International Police (Interpol) for the arrest of Ms Bhutto and wanted to seek a policy statement from the interior minister who was also present in the house. However, she regretted, the speaker not only switched her mike off, but also used unparliamentary language against her. She said the government had gone to such an extent in victimising Ms Bhutto that it had been approaching Interpol.

Ms Khan said on one hand, the speaker allowed Federal Minister for Religious Affairs Ijazul Haq to speak against Ms Bhutto, and on the other, he denied their right to respond to the minister’s remarks. She asked the speaker to tender an apology over his attitude.

She also criticized the speaker for not letting them speak against the military rulers.

MNA Mehreen Anwer Raja said dictatorship was visible everywhere in the country which was evident from the Thursday’s incident when the opposition members were not allowed to even enter the Parliament House building.

Nawab Yusuf Talpur, Ramesh Lal and Rubina Saadat Qaimkhani also spoke on the occasion.

Meanwhile, PPP spokesman Farhatullah Babar, in a statement, denounced the ‘regime-inspired’ reports of so-called re- confirmation of the red notices allegedly issued by the Interpol for the arrest of Ms Bhutto and her husband Asif Zardari. He termed it yet another ‘tirade’ by the regime to tarnish the image of the former prime minister.