ISLAMABAD, June 23: The National Assembly on Saturday witnessed a rumpus when the members of the People’s Party Parliamentarians (PPP) protested over Federal Minister for Religious Affairs Ijazul Haq’s remarks against their party chairperson Benazir Bhutto.

The angry PPP members forced Speaker Chaudhry Amir Hussain to expunge some of the unparliamentary words used by the minister for Ms Bhutto accusing her of working against the interests of the country.

Speaking on a point of order, PPP member Naheed Khan told the House that despite the speaker’s directive of removing all the banners from Islamabad inscribed with insulting slogans against any party or personality there were some banners still on display in the city.

The controversy had begun on Friday when the People’s Party Parliamentarians members drew the attention of the house towards the fact that several banners were hanging in the city carrying insulting remarks against the former premier and alleged that it had been done by the religious affairs minister after getting annoyed over Ms Bhutto’s statement seeking resignation from the religious affairs minister for justifying suicide attacks.

Ms Khan said the banners were even hanging on the fence of the Parliament House which showed a clear violation of the speaker’s ruling. She claimed that similar banners were also on display outside the Ministry of Religious Affairs.

She asked the speaker to summon the chairman of the Capital Development Authority (CDA) to inquire from him as to which minister had ordered the display of these banners. “Immediately sack the minister who has put these banners on display,” she demanded. Responding to Ms Khan’s points, the minister said whoever was supporting Salman Rushdie had no right to do politics in Pakistan.

He alleged that Ms Bhutto had made a statement on a British TV channel that the religious affairs minister should resign after speaking against a British national (Salman Rushdie).

All the People’s Party Parliamentarians members stood up and lodged a strong protest against the speaker for allowing the minister to speak against their leader. PPP member from Murree, Ghulam Murtaza Satti, even went to the speaker’s rostrum asking him to switch off the minister’s mike.

Mr Haq said Ms Bhutto wanted to please the Britain and spoke against Pakistan whenever she went to India. He said the banners against Ms Bhutto were on display not only in Islamabad but in all other cities.

When he said that some 5,000 banners were hanging in Lahore alone, PPP MNA Zamarrud Khan shouted that the minister even knew the number of banners.

“You are the (bus) conductor of the chief justice and why you have not gone to Multan and Sahiwal,” Mr Haq said to Zamarrud Khan while referring to the visit of Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry to the southern Punjab city.

He also accused Zamarrud Khan of illegally occupying the land of Pakistan Railways. Later, PPP’s Syed Khurshid Shah said it was a historical fact that Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto had resolved the issue of Khatam-i-Nabuwat by declaring Qadianis as non-Muslims.

He said those army generals who were against this act of Bhutto and even wanted to murder him were still behind the ongoing move to malign Ms Bhutto. He said that Ms Bhutto had never exploited Islam and she was a leader of the whole Muslim Ummah.

Mr Shah condemned the statement of Mr Haq in which he supported the suicide attacks. Later, Minister of State for Interior Zafar Iqbal Warraich told the speaker that the Capital Development Authority had removed all the banners from Islamabad after his ruling, but it seemed that someone had put these banners again sometime early in the morning.