ISLAMABAD, Jan 22: The government on Monday condemned a deadly attack on a Pakistani post in the North Waziristan tribal area by US-led coalition forces in Afghanistan earlier in the day and told the Senate such violations would not be tolerated.

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Sher Afgan Khan Niazi even said that violation of Pakistani territory from across the troubled western border “must be retaliated”.

“Such attacks should be treated just like enemy attacks,” the minister said after a pro-government senator from the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) raised the matter during an evening sitting of the upper house and called for a strong government reaction.

“We condemn it,” Mr Niazi said and promised to the house that a strong statement over the matter would be issued.

A military statement said Pakistan had lodged “a strong protest” with the coalition authorities against what it called a mistaken firing on the post in the Shawal area of the North Waziristan Agency that killed one Pakistani soldier and wounded two. It said Islamabad had asked the coalition to investigate the matter and “take necessary measures to ensure that such incidents are not repeated in the future”.

Fata Senator Hamidulah Jan Afridi created a stir in the Senate towards the fag-end of the proceedings on a private members’ day as he informed it about the incident which the military statement said happened at 2:55pm.

He complained of repeated violations of the Pakistani border by the coalition forces fighting al Qaeda and Taliban militants in Afghanistan and said: “They will not stop unless one or two of their planes were shot down.”

Mr Afridi said the tribal people themselves would retaliate if the government did not take a serious notice of the matter, adding that they had the necessary capability and weapons.

Most of the time of the first private members’ day of the present session was consumed in numerous points of order raised by Senators from both the opposition and the ruling coalition, which occasionally sparked bitter exchanges between the two sides, before the house was adjourned until 4pm on Tuesday.

Mr Niazi and Ports and Shipping Minister Babar Khan Ghauri taunted the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal alliance of religious parties to resign from the National Assembly to fulfil their promised protest against the passage of a women's rights bill in November.“Give resignations, give resignations,” Mr Niazi chanted repeatedly at the end of a brief speech amid the din of an MMA bout of shouting over the demolition of two mosques in Islamabad, and added: “They can issue fatwas but cannot resign.”

He said Pakistan's founder Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah never wanted “mullaiyat” (rule of mullahs) and recalled opposition to the creation of Pakistan by some religious parties, inviting MMA senators’ shouts of “lota, lota” (turncoat), in a reference to his defection from the People's Party Parliamentarians (PPP) after being elected on the party's ticket in the October 2002 elections.

Opposition leader Raza Rabbani accused the government of political victimisation as he complained about disappearances of political activists and what he called detention of 50 to 60 PPP workers in Karachi earlier in the day to foil a planned protest demonstration against some objectionable remarks of Sindh Chief Minister Arbab Ghulam Rahim about former prime minister Benazir Bhutto.

Minister of State for Interior Zafar Iqbal Warraich assured the house that his ministry would do “whatever is possible” for the recovery of the missing people and that he would get information from Karachi and report to the house about the alleged detention of PPP workers.

Opposition Senator Abdul Malik from Balochistan said a Baloch poet, Qazi Mubarak, was under detention for the past three months for one of his couplets and Awami National Party chief Asfandyar Wali complained about the disappearance and possible kidnapping of a Peshawar journalist, Sohail Qalandar, more than two weeks ago.

Health Minister Mohammad Nasir Khan, on a complaint from ruling Pakistan Muslim League's Senator Rozina Alam, denied a press report about the scarcity of some life-saving drugs in the country and said if medicines of certain brands were unavailable, their equally efficacious alternatives were available.

“We are acting and kicking and will not allow any shortage of drugs,” he said.