ISLAMABAD, Aug 21: Leaders of the combined opposition in the Senate on Monday termed government’s allegations about replacement of Quaid-i-Azam’s portrait as unfounded and a deliberate attempt to divert attention from real issues.

Speaking at a joint news conference after staging a walk out from the upper house, Leader of the opposition in the Senate Mian Raza Rabbani, MMA’s Prof Khurshid Ahmed and Maulana Gul Nasib said that the government was afraid of the opposition’s proposed no-trust move and had, therefore, created commotion in the house to change the focus of attention.

It was surprising that none of the opposition lawmakers, except for Mian Raza Rabbani, spoke or resisted the onslaught of the treasury members during the hour-long pandemonium while they chose to speak to media persons outside the Senate hall.

They said members of the treasury benches, especially the minister of state for parliamentary affairs, demonstrated highly unparliamentary attitude during their own created commotion and even challenged the rulings of the chairman.

The opposition leaders said that the treasury members had deliberately attempted to delay the adjournment motion by which the corruption of Punjab government in provision of land to Mercedes Benz near Lahore was to be exposed. “We strongly condemned the language that was used by official lawmakers in the upper house against the senior leadership of the opposition using the name of Quaid-i-Azam and so called replacement of his portrait,” they maintained.

They said: “These elements, who tirelessly praise Quaid-i-Azam, have always played dirty role by leaguing with the generals who had dismembered Pakistan and damaged its prestige worldwide. So much so that the Punjab chief minister had inter-linked his fate and portrait with President Gen Pervez Musharraf.”