ISLAMABAD, June 22: Opposition walked out of the National Assembly on Tuesday after speaker Chaudhry Amir Hussain declined to intervene to provide relief to the jailed ARD president, Javed Hashmi.

PML-N member Tehmina Daultana, rising on a point of order, told the house that Mr Hashmi was seriously ill and needed immediate medical attention. Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Mohammad Raza Hayat Hiraj did not accept the point of order, saying Mr Hashmi must seek relief from a court.

The speaker, who refused the opposition's demand to call for bringing Mr Hashmi to the house, said he could not intervene in the matter because the case was pending in a court.

At this stage, PML-N members staged a token walkout, followed by their colleagues in the Alliance for the Restoration of Democracy and then by the members of the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal.

All the opposition members, however, returned to the house when Finance Minister Shaukat Aziz started his speech to wind up the general debate on the budget. The house also saw a rumpus in the afternoon sitting when a member of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement, Israrul Ibad, ridiculed the opposition for its noisy protests for more than a year against President Musharraf's Legal Framework Order.

A number of opposition members stood up and started shouting at the MQM MNA. Interior Minister Faisal Saleh Hayat informed the house that two policemen had been suspended on charges of manhandling a newsman and misbehaving with an MNA outside the parliament house.