ISLAMABAD: The Mutta­hida Qaumi Movement (MQM) brought its latest spat with the PPP to the National Assembly on Monday by staging a token walkout from the house.

It was a follow-up of the party’s withdrawal from the PPP-led government in Sindh on Sunday in protest against some remarks of PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari at the party’s rally in Karachi on Saturday and of opposition leader Khursheed Ahmed Shah a day earlier.

However, the MQM’s members returned to the house while a PPP lawmaker, Abdul Sattar Bachani, was in the midst of an angry rejoinder to MQM’s Abdul Rashid Godail.

While Mr Shah arrived in the house after the bitter exchanges between the two sides — the speaker expunging some remarks of both the speakers — a senior PPP lawmaker, Naveed Qamar, went to Mr Godail’s desk and spent some time in an apparent move to cool tempers.

Also on Monday, the MQM submitted two resolutions to the National Assembly Secretariat, including the one seeking debate on the issue of creation of new provinces in the country.

Talking to Dawn after the assembly session, Mr Godail said the party had also submitted a resolution seeking an apology from the leader of opposition for uttering abusive language against the Urdu-speaking people.

Mr Godail said the MQM had moved the resolution on the creation of new province with the aim of initiating a national debate on this important issue. In the resolution, he added, the party had not made any demand for creation of new provinces and it had only called for a debate so that a consensus could be achieved on this thorny issue.

The MQM has been demanding creation of new provinces in the country on administrative grounds. The party, however, is facing criticism on the issue from Sindh-based political parties, including the PPP.

Answering a question, Mr Godail said the MQM had not submitted any motion to remove Mr Shah from the office of the opposition leader, but said the party had no more confidence in him after his recent statement in which he had ridiculed the “Mohajirs” who had migrated from India at the time of the country’s independence.

Published in Dawn, October 21st , 2014