ISLAMABAD, Feb 6: The opposition’s sit-in in Islamabad was over in a few hours on Monday, but its mention in the Senate on Wednesday ignited a clash between the ruling PPP and the PML-N, leading to a walkout by opposition senators.

The PML-N members walked out of the house when Deputy Chairman Sabir Baloch, on a request of the treasury benches, expunged some remarks made by the party’s Mushahidullah Khan about the late Benazir Bhutto.

It all started when PPP’s Mukhtiar Ahmed Dhamrah, speaking on a point of order, questioned the logic behind the protest sit-in by opposition parties outside the Election Commission office and compared it with last month’s sit-in by Dr Tahirul Qadri.

The PPP senator termed the opposition’s sit-in a complete failure and said the participants who had been given a free hand by the government could not even face rain. On the other hand, he said, Dr Qadri’s followers, women and children among them, were well-disciplined. He wondered how the leaders who could not face even rain would solve the people’s problems.

Mushahidullah Khan regretted the comparison between the two events and questioned as to why the government had made a deal with Dr Qadri who was a “non-entity”. He said the PPP was giving the certificate of success to the sit-in by Dr Qadri who had called them “Yazeed”.

Mr Khan said the PML-N had not given a call to the public to participate in its sit-in which was aimed only at demonstrating support for the Election Commission. He said the party’s chief Nawaz Sharif could gather hundreds of thousands of people by giving just one call.

He said the PPP must be thankful to the opposition for allowing it to complete its five-year rule of what he termed ‘corruption and plunder’.

Mr Khan alleged that the present PPP leaders had deviated from the policies of Benazir Bhutto. Today, he said, the PPP was sitting with the PML-Q, the party which had been declared “Qatil (murderer) League” by Ms Bhutto and President Asif Zardari.

“You people have nothing to do with BB,” he said and alleged that the ‘Jyalas’ had left her at the time of her death.

The remarks enraged the treasury members who stood up and started shouting at the opposition.

Kazim Khan of the PPP said Nawaz Sharif was in politics today only because of Ms Bhutto who had paved the way for his return to the country.

PPP Senator Sardar Ali Khan acknowledged that some leaders of his party were not where they should have been, but said this was not the proper time and forum to discuss such issues.

At the outset of the sitting, Leader of Opposition Ishaq Dar protested over the absence of Interior Minister Rehman Malik who was supposed to give an in-camera briefing on the Karachi situation.

He said the minister had presented a dangerous scenario for the country and it was on his request that the house had decided to have an in-camera sitting on Wednesday.

In the meantime, Mr Malik entered the house and informed the members that he could not speak because of some “problems in his vocal chord”. He said he had an appointment with a doctor in two days after which he might undergo a surgery. He said he was ready to brief the house on the Karachi situation, but “I am genuinely ill”.

BALOCHISTAN: Senators belonging to the JUI-F and BNP-A continued their protest against imposition of governor’s rule in Balochistan and staged a walkout.

Hasil Bizenjo of the National Party criticised a reported deal between the JUI-F and the ruling coalition on the Balochistan issue.

The Baloch senator said he had come to know that a PML-Q man would be the chief minister and the JUI-F would get the post of opposition leader.

The Senate, in its brief sitting, adopted two bills, one for the establishment of the Trade Development Authority and the other to provide for the registration and regulation of trade organisations.

The house referred to the committee concerned a bill to provide for the registration, regulation and functioning of private educational institutions in Islamabad.