ISLAMABAD: The government’s alleged non-seriousness on some key foreign policy and security issues came into sharp focus in the National Assembly on Wednesday as it failed to say if the prime minister’s adviser could brief the house in the remaining two days of its present session, sparking the first comprehensive post-election opposition walkout.

Opposition leader Khursheed Ahmed Shah of the PPP and parliamentary leaders of almost all other opposition parties demanded that the adviser on foreign affairs and national security, Sartaj Aziz, brief the house before its scheduled prorogation on Friday.

They sought the briefing on issues such as Pakistan’s role in the ‘Doha dialogue’ for Afghan reconciliation, the prime minister’s offer of dialogue to Pakistani Taliban, Indian violations of the Line of Control (LoC), conversion of the Defence Committee of the Cabinet (DCC) into a Cabinet Committee on National Security (CCNS) and a widely speculated American military action against Syria.

But since the foreign affairs portfolio is held by the prime minister, who has rarely come to the house, the treasury benches appeared confused about who should respond to the demand, with Speaker Sardar Ayaz Sadiq and then Deputy Speaker Murtaza Javed Abbasi alternately asking Defence Production Minister Rana Tanveer Hussain and Minister of State for Privatisation Khurram Dastgir to do the job.

And after speeches from three more parliamentary group leaders who followed Mr Shah before and after a break for Maghreb prayers, including PTI vice-chairman and former foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi, it was the defence production minister who rose to speak.

But he only cursorily restated the government’s known positions such as that Pakistan was acting only as a facilitator of the Afghan dialogue, it wanted to ease tensions on the LoC through dialogue while wanting India to desist from “mischievous activities” and that the renamed CCNS had an extended scope to deal with internal security matters in addition to external threats.

While side-stepping the situation in Syria and any possibility of dialogue with the Pakistani Taliban, the minister assured the house that the adviser would give it a comprehensive briefing, but did not specify the date, while Mr Shah had demanded that it be done on Thursday.

After PPP’s senior lawmaker Naveed Qamar, Mr Qureshi of the PTI and Asif Hasnain of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement insisted that the adviser come within the next 24 hours, particularly in view of the fast-moving Syrian situation, but another call from the chair to Minister of State Dastgir for an additional reply produced no response.

And then the deputy speaker, ignoring Mr Shah’s objections, turned to another issue, allowing a PML-N member from Sindh, Ayaz Ali Shah Sherazi, to move a privilege motion on alleged mistreatment he had received from police, which was admitted after Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan said he had no objection to it.

The opposition benches appeared upset by this deviation, with Mr Shah declaring that they had no option but to walk out if the treasury members showed such ‘‘non-seriousness” about important issues.

All opposition parties stormed out of the house, not to return for the remainder of the sitting.

Previous walkouts since the present assembly, elected in the May 11 elections, became functional were either staged by opposition parties separately or were brief, token affairs.

JOB QUOTA BILL: With the opposition benches empty, Science and Technology Minister Zahid Hamid introduced an important government bill seeking an amendment to the constitution to extend the period of reserving special quotas in federal services allowed for “persons belonging to any class or area” for 20 more years from the originally provided 40 years running out this year.

The statement of objects and reasons of what is called the Constitution (Twenty-third Amendment) said it had been felt that “since equal opportunity of education and other facilities are not yet available to all citizens of Pakistan”, the period of 40 years for reserved quotas specified in Clause (1) of Article 27 of the 1973 Constitution was being sought to be extended to 60 years.

Being an amendment to the constitution, the bill needs passage by two-thirds majorities in both the 342-seat National Assembly and the 104-seat Senate.

While Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Sheikh Aftab Ahmed failed to persuade the opposition to end its walkout, only PML-N’s Qaiser Ahmed Sheikh from Punjab could speak in the debate on President Asif Ali Zardari’s June 10 address to a joint sitting of parliament before the house was adjourned until 10.30am on Thursday.