PESHAWAR, July 4: Leaders of parliamentary parties in the NWFP Assembly have summoned a meeting on Wednesday to discuss what they called the insulting reaction of the US Consulate, Peshawar, to the offering of Fateha for Zarqawi in the House.

On June 21, Sabira Shakir of the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal drew the attention of the chair to the assassination of Al Qaeda ledaer Abu Musab al Zarqawi in an air attack in Iraq and offered Fateha for Zarqawi.

Speaker Bakht Jehan Khan, who was presiding over the session, asked the minister for irrigation and power, Hafiz Akhtar Ali, to recite prayers and the house offered Fateha.

This angered US diplomats stationed in Pakistan. The US Consulate in Peshawar sent protest letters to Speaker Bakht Jehan Khan, Hafiz Akhtar Ali and women MPAs and expressed its resentment over the posthumous treatment given to an Al Qaeda militant. The US consulate also withdrew an invitation it had extended to the speaker to the US Independence Day reception.

Speaker Bakht Jehan termed it “insult of the House” and said the US attitude would be criticised in the assembly.