ISLAMABAD, April 7: The government was caught napping in the National Assembly session on Friday as the opposition came out strongly against what it called “a wrongful directive to MPs” not to make direct contact with Indian diplomats.

On the opening day of the lower house spring session, which was also marked by two opposition protest walkouts and an early adjournment for lack of quorum, Speaker Chaudhry Amir Hussain reserved his ruling on whether to admit what opposition members called a breach of their privilege caused by the directive issued by the Cabinet Division of the federal government.

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Sher Afgan Niazi and Law and Justice Minister Mohammad Wasi Zafar neither confirmed nor denied whether the Cabinet Division had issued the letter, but said such a step would be in order under the rules of business framed by the government about the conduct of state functionaries.

Both men called for the rejection of the privilege motion moved by Raja Pervez Ashraf, secretary-general of the People’s Party Parliamentarians (PPP), and supported by other members from the PPP and the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA) alliance.

But the ministers received a partial rebuff from the speaker who said he agreed with the opposition view that Rule 56 (1) of the rules of business they had cited to justify restricting direct contact with foreign missions and diplomats did not apply to parliamentarians.

Initially, the chair too greeted with disbelief opposition protests about the existence of such a circular by the Cabinet Division, while Mr Afgan repeatedly challenged the opposition members to produce the text, as if it had not been written.

But the speaker seemed to change his view after some opposition members insisted that they had received the circular and their cause was taken up also by two ruling coalition members — Kunwar Khalid Younis of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement and M.P. Bhandara of the Pakistan Muslim League — who said their similar questions of privilege were dismissed two months ago.

There were angry shouts from opposition members who accused the two ministers who spoke on the issue of being ignorant of facts or trying to mislead the house and the chair.

It was not immediately clear whether the Cabinet Division letter about which the opposition members complained was the same that Mr Younis and Mr Bhandara said was issued two months ago or was a recent occurrence.

While other opposition members, including the MMA’s Liaquat Baloch and PPP’s Nayyar Bokhari, questioned the propriety of the circular, PPP’s Khurshid Ahmed Shah said he and another party MNA, Ghulam Mustafa Shah, were stopped and questioned by unidentified people outside the Indian High Commission after they visited the mission in connection with a visa request on Friday morning.

WALKOUTS: The speaker provoked the first opposition walkout when he put off until the next sitting on Monday consideration of another opposition privilege question over the alleged detention of Balochistan National Party-Mengal (BNP-M) MNA Abdul Rauf Mengal at the Karachi home of his party chief Sardar Akhtar Mengal on Friday.

The issue was raised by MMA’s Hafiz Hussain Ahmed who said the BNP-M member had told him by telephone that he was prevented from travelling to Islamabad on Friday morning to attend the assembly session and sought immediate action by the house.

But the chair agreed with Mr Afgan’s contention to put off the issue until the next sitting and asked the law and justice minister to ascertain facts about the matter by then.

The opposition staged the second walkout after the chair did not allow PPP’s Khurshid Ahmed Shah to speak, on a point of order, about what he called the “cheap” sale of the Pakistan Steel Mills, depriving the 342-seat house of the required quorum of 86 members and leading to its adjournment until 11am on Monday.

INFLATION DEBATE: Before that both sides of the house agreed to hold a detailed debate on Wednesday on inflation in the country as sought by about a dozen adjournment motions moved by opposition members on high prices of petroleum products, sugar, edible oil, cement, gas and electricity.

One adjournment motion by PPP members complained of “the government’s unwillingness to investigate criminal levels of hoarding and profiteering by responsible cabinet ministers who own sugar mills”.

Other movers of the adjournment motions were the MMA and Pakistan Muslim League-N.