ISLAMABAD, March 9: The National Assembly session was adjourned on Thursday without taking up any item on the agenda to mourn the death of its member from Hyderabad Prof Khalid Wahab, who died of heart attack last month.

At the outset of the session, the opposition members staged a token walkout when Speaker Chaudhry Amir Hussain refused to give floor to Hafiz Hussain Ahmed of the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA) to speak on a point of order.

The speaker said the house was so far incomplete as one of the recently-elected MNA was present in the assembly without taking oath. The speaker then administered oath from Ghalib Hussain Dombki, who had been elected MNA on the ruling party’s ticket from Jacobabad on the seat vacated by Kashmore Nazim Salim Jan Mazari.

The opposition members remained in the lobby till Mr Dombki returned to his seat after signing the assembly roll.

The speaker said that it had been a tradition of the National Assembly that when a sitting member died, the first day of the very next session was devoted only to offer condolences by setting aside all the routine business.

The members then offered fateha for late MQM MNA Prof Khalid Wahab. The speaker also allowed some members to deliver speeches to pay homage to the late MNA.

The speaker did not allow MMA’s Liaquat Baloch to speak when he tried to raise the issue of the continued detention of Qazi Hussain Ahmed, Makhdoom Javed Hashmi and Khwaja Saad Rafiq.

He adjourned the assembly to meet again on Saturday at 10am.