ISLAMABAD, Sept 16: Opposition parties walked out of the National Assembly on Thursday in protest after Speaker Chaudhry Amir Hussain rejected their demand for a debate on ruling coalition's moves to persuade President Pervez Musharraf not to honour his promise to give up as army chief by December 31.
Some members also protested against Wednesday's remarks by Information and Broadcasting Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed who was variously quoted by the media as saying that the president would continue to wear uniform or that he would 'hopefully' do it.
The speaker said he was not obliged to accept the opposition demand after allowing a debate on the issue last March and then a discussion on Tuesday on the admissibility of four privilegess motions on the same subject But he promised to consider some adjournment motions tabled by opposition members from the Alliance for the Restoration of Democracy (ARD) and the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA) on the issue.
Several opposition members, rising on points of order, also called for a detailed debate on the current military operation in South Waziristan at the end of the question hour, which had to be suspended for a while because of lack of quorum in the house.
The information and broadcasting minister, who is a member of a three-member government committee set up to hold a dialogue with politicians on the situation, said the government would take opposition parties into confidence and brief them about the latest clashes between security forces and alleged militants near the South Waziristan town of Wana.
He also sought opposition support over what he called a national issue, which he said the government was seeking to settle amicably. But he refrained from commenting on the president's uniform, about which his remarks to reporters on Wednesday created a stir at home and abroad.
Pakistan Muslim League-N parliamentary leader Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan called the Wana fighting and the controversy over the president's uniform as the most important issues now facing the country as he sought a debate on them in the house.
"For God's sake both these issues be discussed," he said. "When this issue is being discussed in the streets, why can't it be discussed in this house?" People's Party Parliamentarians (PPP) secretary-general Raja Pervez Ashraf asked about the uniform controversy that he said had created a commotion in the country.
MMA's Hafiz Hussain Ahmed and pro-MMA tribal MNA from South Waziristan Maulana Merajuddin accused security forces of killing local people in Wana as they called for a debate on the situation.
PPP chief whip Khurshid Ahmed Shah described the information minister's reported statement that the president would retain his uniform as an insult to parliament and the Pakistani people as he announced the token walkout by opposition members, who returned after several minutes and took part in the remainder of the brief proceedings before the house the house was adjourned until 10am on Friday.
The speaker seemed unhappy with the opposition protest and said frequent walkouts could lose their importance.
OKARA FARMS ROW: The house witnessed some heated exchanges also over a controversy about Okara military farms in Punjab when it took up a call-attention notice by five PPP members about the alleged killing of seven protesting tenants there by security forces as far back as 2002.
Parliamentary secretary for defence Tanveer Hussain Syed denied the charge and said only two people were killed in a clash between two rival groups rather than by security forces.
He also said there was no plan yet to return the land of the Okara farms to the Punjab government from which it was taken on a lease in 1913. Parliamentary Affairs Minister Sher Afgan Niazi said the 1913 lease deed was for 99 years and had not yet expired.
Minister of State for Defence Wasim Shahzad said there was no problem with tenants of the Okara farms and blamed unspecified 'vested interests' and elements opposed to stability for stoking trouble there.
In response to a call-attention notice from five MMA members, Minister of State for Finance Omar Ayub Khan said the government would consider their demand to exempt the import of surgical gloves from government duties.