ISLAMABAD: Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) on Thursday staged token walkout from the joint sitting of the Parliament on recent increase of petroleum prices.
Party's Deputy Parliamentary Leader in National Assembly Haider Abbas Rizvi claimed on a point of order that his party was not consulted prior to increasing the petroleum and CNG prices.
"The government had assured earlier to take into confidence all stakeholder whenever the petroleum prices had to be revised," he claimed and said that it was not done.
He said a committee of the House was also formed when earlier the MQM and the opposition had opposed hike in petroleum prices. "But, the issue of recent hike was not brought to this committee."
MQM is a coalition partner of the government and opposed the increase in petroleum prices in the past as well. The party also described proportionate decrease in petroleum price as insufficient.
"Such decisions also have an onus on the coalition partners.Therefore, not discussing it with us as well as putting before the committee is a breach of trust," he added.
Rejecting the increase he announced to stage a token walkout from the House as a mark of protest. Speaker National Assembly Dr Fehmida Mirza asked Petroleum Minister Dr Asim Hussain and some other MPs to discuss the matter with their coalition partners.