ISLAMABAD, March 8: The ruling coalition and opposition vowed in the National Assembly on Tuesday to formulate a code of conduct against using unparliamentary language in the lower house after rare peace moves by speaker Chaudhry Amir Hussain.

Spokesmen from both sides said they had agreed to do this through a joint house business advisory committee while trying to resolve a verbal row between the opposition Muttahida Majlis-i- Amal (MMA) and the government-allied Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), which sparked another MMA protest walkout in the beginning of Tuesday's proceedings.

The speaker, himself accused by the opposition benches of being partial against them, started the day by showing an olive branch to the People's Party Parliamentarians (PPP) by regretting his remarks during a spat with PPP women members on Monday and later called a meeting of the leaders of rival parties that settled the MMA-MQM row over remarks the two sides made about each other.

The moves seemed aimed to avoid exacerbating tensions with opposition parties while the ruling coalition is already under strain from an embarrassing rift in its provincial government in Sindh and unrest in Balochistan.

After the meeting at the speaker's chamber, which was also attended by Pakistan Muslim League (PML) president Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, MQM member Kunwar Khalid Yunus regretted his Monday's remarks about MMA's Hafiz Hussain Ahmed, saying he only responded to what he called MMA member's derogatory remarks about MQM leader Altaf Hussain, now living in self-exile in Britain.

On Monday, the speaker had expunged the objectionable remarks from both sides, but did not do the same when Hafiz Hussain Ahmed repeated them on Tuesday, saying he had responded to an attack by another MQM member to state that "none of our leaders" had asked their followers to "sell their televisions to buy Kalashnikovs" or describe Pakistan as "the united states of Pakistan".

Mr Yunus had denied Mr Altaf Hussain had ever called for buying Kalashnikov assault rifles but saw nothing wrong with the description of the "united states of Pakistan" reportedly used by the MQM leader in a recent speech.

After the MMA ended its walkout through persuasion by the ruling coalition and PPP members, PML chief whip Nasrullah Dreshak told the house the parties had agreed to formulate a code in the joint house business advisory committee not to attack each other's main leaders not present in the house. This was confirmed by MMA leader Liaqat Baloch.

MMA members walked out of the house after the speaker's expression of regrets for the remarks of Kunwar Khalid Yunus in the absence of the MQM member who failed to satisfy them.

The speaker told members of the house that they could follow their party line in a "civilised manner" but should not make personal attacks. He said that as the custodian of the house he was offering his regrets if any member's feelings had been injured by Monday's episode. "I feel sorry for that." But after the MMA ended its walkout, Mr Khalid declined to regret his expunged remarks unless the other side did the same, only to invite protests from MMA members who stood up in their seats, with one of them saying: "This is no regret."

While both Mr Yunus and Hafiz Hussain denied having said anything objectionable but the other of doing it, Mr Dreshak and a PPP member from Islamabad, Nayyar Bokhari, told the house that the MMA had ended the walkout after the ruling coalition promised a regret by the MQM member.

The speaker suspended the proceeding for 15 minutes to let representatives of the treasury and opposition benches resolve the matter at a meeting in his chamber, which actually continued for about an hour.

On return from the meeting, Mr Yunus said that if any member felt hurt by his remarks, "I will offer regret it in the same way as any member of a party sitting in the opposition would do it about our quaid (leader)." Though no clear regret came from either side, Liaqat Baloch accepted Mr Yunus's remarks as regrets and announced the end of the row.