ISLAMABAD, Aug 29: The government tasted double defeat at the start of a National Assembly session on Monday before coming under severe opposition attack for alleged rigging in the recent local government elections.

The ruling coalition’s rare embarrassment came when a government motion for condoning a delay in the presentation of a standing committee report on a bill was defeated and later it failed to stop an opposition-sought debate on the local body elections.

The 342-seat house began its session half an hour late after a recess of two and a half months despite a lack of quorum which became acute when a motion for condoning the delay in the presentation of the standing committee report on a bill seeking to repeal the National Development Finance Corporation Act 1973 was tabled.

Both Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, who presided over a ruling coalition’s parliamentary party before the start of the session, and the ruling PML president Chaudhry Shujaat were absent from the house.

Earlier, the combined opposition staged a walkout to protest against what it called unprecedented and massive rigging before, during and after the August 18 and August 25 voting in the two stages of elections for union council members and nazims in the four provinces of the country.

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Sher Afgan Khan Niazi, in an unprecedented move, walked out of the house after the house rejected the condoning motion, pointing out a lack of quorum, which proved otherwise when speaker Chaudhry Amir Hussain ordered a second count of members present in the house.

Five members on the treasury benches — Riaz Peerzada, Malik Farooq Azam, Sanaullah Mastikhel, Sher Akbar and Makhdoom Ahmed Alam Anwar — remained seated despite persuasion by Dr Niazi to walk out and were counted during the vote count for quorum.

Dr Niazi, who had failed in his desperate efforts to woo the opposition not to force a vote count on the motion, led the treasury members’ walkout and also made it sure that all but five coalition members were out of the house before counting for the quorum started.

In what looked like a change of usual roles in the house, the opposition, as a gesture of goodwill, sent opposition leader Maulana Fazlur Rahman, PPP president Makhdoom Amin Fahim and some others to persuade the ruling coalition members to come back to the house and listen to opposition speeches about the alleged rigging.

MMA president Qazi Hussain Ahmed opened the debate and MQM’s parliamentary leader Farooq Sattar was given floor to respond to his allegations, particularly about the conditions prevailing in Karachi before and on the polling day.

The opposition had closed its ranks and was seen making joint moves one after the other to embarrass the government on a number of occasions. It also happened for the first time in the present assembly that five treasury members refused to follow the parliamentary affairs minister’s directive for a walkout and thus boosted the opposition’s position.

Ruling coalition’s Riaz Hussain Peerzada from what is known as Leghari group and Dr Firdaus Ashiq Awan, sworn rival of NA Speaker Amir Hussain, caused much embarrassment for the government when they said they too would speak to expose officially sponsored rigging to defeat rivals.

Sher Akbar Khan of the PPP faction led by Interior Minister Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao also created a furore in the treasury benches when he spoke against the conduct of the newly-appointed NWFP PML president and minister of state Amir Muqam Khan for allegedly indulging in pre-poll rigging in his constituency by sending electricity poles and transformers to woo voters for his favourite candidates.

He said the PML had found an MMA turncoat to become its provincial party president.

“I would like to unfold some realities of the local government polls as I am also an affectee of the rigging,” said PML’s Riaz Peerzada.

He said many ruling party members would like to expose the truth about the rigged polls and stage a walkout in protest.

Dr Firdaus Ashiq Awan, on a point of order, addressed the chair thus: “Mr speaker, I have something to say about the excesses that you as an old rival have meted out to my group in Sialkot during the elections”.

The speaker disallowed his rival lady to speak any further and said: “It is good that someone has admitted that I can also commit excesses to someone.”

Earlier, on a point of order, acting PML-N parliamentary leader Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan said there was a deep tension in the house over victimisation of its members such as what he called false indictment of two PML-N and one MMA law-makers for election-related offences.

He said the country was being run without the rule of law as his party’s acting president Javed Hashmi was imprisoned for “none of his crimes”.

The government side denied that any incident of firing had ever happened on the residence of MMA member Asadullah Bhutto.

Speaking on a privilege motion sought to be moved by Mr Bhutto, Mr Sherpao said police investigations had revealed that there was a wedding going on near the member’s house in Sukkur where firecrackers were exploded.

Another privilege motion sought to be moved by a treasury member Ali Hasan Gilani was referred to the house committee on privileges when the member refused to accept Mr Sherpao’s proposal to summon the police officers concerned for a patch-up.

The speaker played a role of pacifier in favour of treasury benches as he continued efforts to cool down the temperature in the house against the alleged poll rigging.

Qazi Hussain Ahmed took notice of speaker’s attitude and said: “The entire nation is concerned and is looking towards the opposition to raise its voice against the rigged polls, indictment of our MPs, the killing of 70 innocent people while you are trying to cool down this temperature.”

The MMA leader also criticised the speaker when the vote count on the government’s motion for delay-condoning was prolonged when both sides indulged in arguments and counter-arguments.

In his opening speech on the debate on the local government polls, Qazi Hussain Ahmed said: “No free and fair elections could be held under the rule of an individual who has usurped power by illegal and unconstitutional means.”

He accused the MQM of taking over local bodies’ institutions and buildings before the Election Day, occupying polling stations by removing opposition polling agents and changing results against winning candidates.

Dr Farooq Sattar described the allegations as usual utterances of defeated parties and said the MMA leader had no proof of his accusations.