ISLAMABAD, June 8: The four Fata senators, who had staged a walkout from the Senate on June 2 at the start of budget session, have so far kept themselves away from the budget proceedings.

The government appears to be giving them a cold shoulder at least in connection with their demand for providing them with separate seats in the upper house.

A Fata lawmaker of MMA on Thursday pointed out absence of the four senators to the chairman and asked him to fulfil their demand to enable them to participate in the budget debate.

However, Chairman Muhammadmian Soomro ignored his point of order. The four Fata lawmakers had announced their walkout on the ground that the chairman had not arranged separate seats for them in the house despite that they had submitted him an application on May 11.

The four Fata senators namely Hameedullah Jan Afridi, Qari Abdul Malik Qadri, Engineer Rashid and Abdur Raziq had withdrawn their membership of the house standing committees in protest against what they termed the government’s failure to fulfil its promise of inducting one of them as minister.