ISLAMABAD, Aug 31: A National Assembly debate on the death of Nawab Akbar Bugti collapsed on Thursday amid provocations when a government minister said the Baloch leader was ‘rightly killed’ in a military operation six days ago.

The opposition parties, who had sought the debate through several adjournment motions, walked out of the house at the start of only the third speech.

The opposition protested at Speaker Chaudhry Amir Hussain’s decision to allow an equal number of members from the opposition and treasury to speak, saying rules allowed only movers of the adjournment motions to make speeches after which Interior Minister Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao could explain the government’s position in a winding up speech.

The Speaker first said that alternate speeches from both sides had been agreed by a house advisory committee meeting — the opposition denied it — but agreed to consider altering the schedule for which he briefly recessed the house and asked government and opposition representatives to meet him.

However, the opposition kept away from the meeting and announced a boycott of proceedings even on Friday.

The debate had a sombre beginning when Balochistan National Party (M) member Abdul Rauf Mengal accused the army of using chemical weapons to kill Mr Bugti and his associates and said their bodies were lying in the army GHQ at Rawalpindi. The bodies, he said, were not being delivered to bereaved families for fear of more reaction against possible mutilation by chemical weapons.

He said Baloch parties would be forced to approach the United Nations, the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation and international human rights organisations to intervene to “save us from military and state terrorism” if the government did not hand over the bodies, stop the military operation in Balochistan and release all Baloch detainees.

“The generals have shown us the way,” he said about the insurgency in Balochistan and added: “We tell our Sindhi, Pashtun and Seraiki brothers also that we have no place left in this federation.”

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Sher Afgan Niazi denied the use of chemical weapons which he said Pakistan did not have or the presence of Nawab Bugti’s body in the GHQ.

The minister provoked opposition anger and shouts of ‘shame, shame’ when he accused Nawab Bugti of instigating anti-state activities such as attacks on security forces and national assets, missile-firing at helicopters, and attacks on Punjabi settlers and said: “We don’t accept that he was engaged in a struggle for people’s rights. If he has been killed in this encounter, he has been rightly killed.”

Hafiz Hussain Ahmed of the MMA accused Mr Niazi of fuelling the fire which the opposition wanted to douse and said the minister’s statement contradicted one by military spokesman Maj-Gen Shaukat Sultan that army officers had gone to negotiate with Nawab Bugti rather than eliminate him when the cave collapsed because of an unexplained blast, killing all inside the hideout.

He rejected Mr Niazi’s assertion of threat to Punjabi settlers in Balochistan, declaring “anybody will have to walk over our bodies to harm Punjabis”.

He said opposition would lodge a case against President Pervez Musharraf under section 320 of the Pakistan Penal Code for the “murder of Akbar Bugti and Baloch people”.

Farooq Amjad Mir of the ruling PML got some welcoming desk-thumping from opposition benches when he said Mr Niazi’s view about Nawab Bugti’s killing was his personal view. But his speech was cut short by opposition protests when he tried to trace Balochistan’s ‘sense of deprivation’ to previous governments.

Opposition members walked out after more protest arguments by Shah Mehmood Qureshi, Nabil Gabol and Syed Zafar Ali Shah of the PPP against allowing speeches from the ruling coalition. Pleas by former prime minister Zafarullah Jamali and Labour Minister Ghulam Sarwar Khan to let the debate continue did not materialise as the opposition did not meet the Speaker who finally adjourned the house until Friday.