ISLAMABAD, Nov 15: The National Assembly ended its third parliamentary year on Monday with a confused debate during which even a minister complained about perceived arrogance of a senior government official and the speaker threatened to suspend an opposition member.

Disorder reigned after Speaker Chaudhry Amir Hussain allowed members from both the treasury and opposition benches to speak on any matter on points of order for more than three hours before he read out a presidential order proroguing the house after a 38-day session.

Some opposition members protested against what they called violation of the Constitution by President Gen Pervez Musharraf by not calling a mandatory joint sitting of the National Assembly and the Senate and making an address to it at the start of the parliamentary year.

Minister of State for Railways Ishaq Khan Khakwani and some other members of the treasury branches caused a stir in the house when they sought to move a privilege motion against what they called insulting attitude of Zari Taraqiati Bank president A. R. Chughtai who they said was not attending to their complaints and refusing to meet them.

Minister of State for Finance Omar Ayub Khan said he had no objection to referring the complaint to the house’s committee on privilege and, on a suggestion from the chair, later agreed to have the matter investigated by the finance secretary before being taken up in the next assembly session.

Communications Minister Shamim Siddique said he would not object to sending another privileges complaint against a postal department official in Quetta from Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal member Maulana Abdul Ghafoor Haideri who was asked by the chair to give a notice in writing.

The present session’s most ugly incident was a verbal clash between the speaker and Ghulam Murtaza Satti of the People’s Party Parliamentarians who had protested by thumping his desk for not being allowed to raise what his other colleagues said was a point of privilege.

The chair accused Mr Satti of insulting and committing a contempt of the house for which he said he could “dis-member him” as he called for a motion for the action be moved by a minister.

But the speaker later withdrew his threat on intervention of some members from both the opposition and treasury benches whose calls for restraint cooled tempers.

MMA president Qazi Hussain Ahmad and PPP member Naveed Qamar accused President Musharraf of violating the Constitution by not calling a joint sitting of parliament – a situation Parliamentary Affairs Minister Sher Afgan Khan Niazi blamed on what he called opposition’s failure to assure a dignified conduct during the presidential address.

There was uproar of protests from opposition benches after the speaker had Qazi Hussain Ahmad’s mike switched off briefly for allegedly being irrelevant when the MMA leader said the PML members’ complaint against the ZTBL president was a consequence of “continuation of martial law”.

Several members form both sides of the house spoke about the plight of sufferers of the devastating Oct 8 earthquake in Azad Kashmir and the NWFP, while those from the opposition accused the government of failing to provide enough shelter to the stricken people, particularly to those faced with the threat of harsh winter.

Saad Rafique of the Pakistan Muslim League-N said the government had not yet come up with a correct figure of casualties or an estimate of other damages while a donors’ conference to be held in Islamabad on Nov 19 was only five days away.

PPP’s Sherry Rehman accused the government of keeping the donor community confused about Pakistan’s requirement for earthquake-related aid and questioned justification of signing a deal for buying Swedish surveillance planes and 40 BMW luxury cars for the President’s House.

Several members from both the opposition and ruling alliance complained about last Saturday’s mob attacks on three churches and some Christian homes in Sangla Hill area of the Nankana district in Punjab but almost all of them were cut short by the chair.

PML-N parliamentary leader Nisar Ali Khan complained that domestic oil prices had not been decreased in line with recent falls in international prices while the government had avoided a debate on the issue in the assembly.

Health Minister Mohammad Naseer Khan, while responding to a call-attention notice from five PPP members, told the house that there had been no case of bird flu in Pakistan but his ministry was keeping a watch on the situation and had consulted officials of the World Health Organization and the United Nations Children’s Fund.

The notice had drawn the minister’s attention to apprehension of spread of bird flu after a number of carcasses of migratory birds were found in lakes of lower Sindh.

The National Assembly was required to complete a minimum of 130 days of session to complete its parliamentary year. But it had actually been in session for 132 days.

Before reading out the prorogation order, the speaker advised the opposition parties to join a parliamentary committee proposed by the prime minister to supervise the post-earthquake relief and reconstruction.