ISLAMABAD, July 12: Federal Minister for Communications Babar Khan Ghouri on Monday assured Senate that a case would be registered against a deputy secretary of the environment ministry for allegedly abusing and thrashing a woman journalist.

The assurance came from the minister following a walkout by the reporters from the press gallery of the upper house. The communications minister, PML Senator Tariq Azeem, PML-N Senator Ishaq Dar and some treasury members came to the press lounge and asked the journalists to end the boycott as the government had taken notice of the incident.

However, the journalists refused to end the boycott and asked the minister to announce on the floor of the house that the government official concerned would be suspended from his post for this act and an FIR be registered against him.

Saima Zahoor, a reporter of an Urdu daily, narrated the whole incident, in which the deputy secretary, Asif Rehman, allegedly slapped her and then locked her in a room for about an hour. She said she had gone to the official to seek his comment on the issue of pollution in Rawal Lake after taking an appointment.

The journalists ended their boycott only when Mr Ghouri gave the assurance on the floor of the house that a case would be registered against the official and an inquiry be held against him.

Interestingly, despite this assurance by Mr Ghouri and then again by the minister of state for parliamentary affairs, Raza Hayat Hiraj, some women members of the treasury benches asked the ministers to give the timeframe for registration of the case.

Opposition members supported the women senators and asked the minister to place the copy of the FIR before the house in the next session. Parliamentary leader of the People's Party Parliamentarians Raza Rabbani said, earlier, the ministers had given several assurances, but none of them had been fulfilled.

He said Interior Minister Faisal Saleh Hayat gave assurances that the inquiry report of the murders of MPA Abdullah Murad Baloch and Munawwar Suharwardy would be presented in the house, but they were yet to see any such report.

He said there should be a house assurance committee to look into the matter. At this point, Ch Anwer Bhinder took the floor and said there was a Senate Assurance Committee and he was its chairman.