ISLAMABAD: The National Assembly was adjourned for two days on Tuesday without conducting its scheduled business to mourn the assassination of Punjab Governor Salman Taseer.

The adjournment also delayed a promised word from Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani about the latest oil price hike.

The house met only for a few minutes to hear a recitation from the holy Quran, some remarks of shock and sorrow and a prayer for Mr Taseer’s soul before being adjourned on a government request until Wednesday.

But a spokesman for the National Assembly announced later that Speaker Fehmida Mirza, exercising her special powers under the rules of procedure, had extended the adjournment until 5pm on Thursday.

Besides a substantial agenda for what was a private members’ day, the house was due to hear from Mr Gilani the outcome of a scheduled meeting with leaders of all parliamentary groups regarding opposition demands for the withdrawal of 5-9.2 per cent increases in the prices of petroleum products made by the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority on Jan 1.

But an official statement said the prime minister had “cancelled all his engagements, including the briefing to parliamentary leaders of different political parties on petroleum prices”, because of the governor’s murder.

There was no immediate word about the next date of the meeting as the government announced three days of mourning for Mr Taseer whose funeral in Lahore on Wednesday is likely to keep the prime minister there at least for that day.

It was agreed by all parties in the National Assembly during a stormy sitting on Monday that Mr Gilani discuss the oil prices with the parliamentary leaders and then announce a “decision” in the house.

On Tuesday, the National Assembly met an hour late in an apparent shock about the same time after Mr Taseer fell to an assassin’s bullets outside a cafe in Islamabad’s F-6/3 sector, only about a kilometre west of the Parliament House.

There was a brief controversy over whether a formal prayer should be said about Mr Taseer before his burial after Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Babar Awan requested for an adjournment of the house as a mark of mourning after the usual recitation of Quranic verses.

But eventually a prayer was said, led by former religious affairs minister Hamid Saeed Kazmi.