ISLAMABAD: Opposition members in the Senate walked out of the house on Tuesday to express solidarity with the Awami National Party (ANP) whose senators had lodged a protest over alleged political victimisation of the party all over the country.

Speaking on a point of order, Senator Shahi Syed drew the attention of the house to the target killing of an ANP activist on Monday night over the issue of putting up a party flag.

The senator alleged that the party had been facing an “unannounced ban” all over the country and it was not being allowed to carry out its normal activities.

Three ANP activists were attacked in Orangi Town area of Karachi when they were putting up party flags, leaving Shahid Habib dead and the two others injured.

“Our workers have been fired upon in Karachi,” Mr Syed said, alleging that his party was also being victimised in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan provinces.

“We are facing an unannounced ban. For how long will it continue?” he asked.

He alleged that some banned organisations had been allowed to attack the ANP. He warned against pushing the party to the wall and said: “Don’t force us to go to mountains like the (angry) Baloch people.”

He regretted that party workers could not even raise party flags in Karachi where some four to five million Pukhtuns lived.

“This is cruelty. And we will walk out against this cruelty,” Mr Syed said, before leading opposition members to go out of the hall.

Interestingly, the main opposition Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) joined the protesting senators despite the fact that the ANP’s protest was against the PPP government in Sindh.

Members of the MQM were not in the house at the time of the walkout.

PPP Parliamentary Leader Raza Rabbani later told Dawn that the ANP’s walkout was not against the Sindh government, but against victimisation of the party in the country. He said that the PPP had joined the ANP’s walkout to express solidarity with it.

Senate Chairman Nayyar Bokhari adjourned the proceedings till Wednesday morning without waiting for the protesting members to return to the house.

At the outset of the session, PPP’s Raza Rabbani protested when the chairman deferred all questions related to the Ministry of Housing and Works at the request of the minister concerned, who had skipped the sitting because of a meeting with the prime minister.

The chairman told the house that Minister for Housing and Works Akram Durrani of the JUI-F had informed him that he could not come to the house because of his engagement with Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.

“This is not a valid reason,” Mr Rabbani said, adding that the minister should have asked the prime minister to revise the meeting schedule due to the Senate session.

The PPP senator said that it seemed that the rulers had learnt nothing from the history. He said it was the parliament that had come to the rescue of the prime minister during the recent political crisis in the country. He said the government should realise the importance of the parliament.

Published in Dawn, October 22nd, 2014