ISLAMABAD, Sept 16: The Senate went through the third day of a noisy row over the legality of its presiding officer on Friday before recessing for a two-day weekend and seemed set to face up to two more days of a farcical spectacle.

The opposition continued its shouting protest against the mode of nomination of a presiding officer for the upper house by Senate Chairman Mohammedmian Soomro while the treasury benches insisted that the chairman’s action was legal.

There were no signs of a compromise between the two sides when presiding officer Khalid Ranjha adjourned the house until 6pm on Monday, following another spell of noisy protests and a walkout by the opposition.

Parliamentary sources said the controversy could continue until President Musharraf’s return on Tuesday by which time Mr Soomro would perhaps be able to make a personal appearance in the house and put an automatic end to the controversy.

Opposition senators shouted “no, no” as Mr Ranjha entered the house to take his chair and said he could not occupy it because of a perceived illegality in his nomination.

Opposition leader Raza Rabbani, who had only pointed to what he had called the presence of “a stranger in the chair” during the previous two sittings of the session, went a step further on Friday by asking Senate secretary Raja Mohammad Amin to call the house sergeant-at-arms and “get the chair vacated”.

As expected, the secretary was unmoved by the request from Mr Rabbani, who then led a deafening round of slogan-chanting and desk-thumping for more than 10 minutes before a walkout that allowed the treasury benches to proceed at their will for the remainder of the sitting.

In the opposition-less house, some members on the treasury benches complained about the absence of PTV cameramen from the floor of the house and about the alleged lack of coverage of the Senate proceedings on PTV news programming.

Minister of State for Information Anisa Zeb Tahirkheli denied the charge but promised to look into the senators’ complaints.

While the discussion on the issue was raging through points of order, two television cameramen appeared on the house floor and began shooting the opposition-less house.

One Pakistan Muslim League woman senator said last Tuesday’s television coverage of the Senate proceedings included a three-month-old clipping that showed PML Senator S.M. Zafar in the house while he had not yet come to the present session.

Mrs Tahirkheli said the shot may have been taken from background material.

Three presidential ordinances were also laid before the house, but the chair did not take up a listed bill seeking to provide for the establishment of the Hydrocarbon Development Institute of Pakistan for the second day.