Islamabad: Pakistan's Opposition parties brought the National Assembly to a standstill as they rejected the controversial Constitutional amendments promulgated in 2002 by President Pervez Musharraf and refused to accept its copies.

After uproarious scenes on March 5, Speaker Chaudhry Amir Hussain adjourned the 342-member National Assembly and asked the ruling and Opposition parties to reach an agreement on the issue.

Opposition leaders later said they would continue their protests until the government agreed to delete the Legal Framework Order (LFO), under which the amendments were constituted, from the Constitution and bring the controversial Presidential decrees it contains, to Parliament for approval.

The Opposition parties - former premier Be1azir Bhutto's Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), deposed prime minister Nawaz Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N) and Islamic party alliance Muthahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) have formed a steering committee to continue their fight against the LFO.

The LFO legalised the referendum held by Musharraf under which he was elected for a five-year term and conferred him powers to dismiss the Parliament and the government.

Trouble broke out in the National Assembly after the government for the first time distributed the copies of the amended Constitution containing the LFO.

The issue remained controversial ever since the National Assembly was constituted last year as several members of the House took oath under 1973 constitution without containing the LFO.

As the slogan-shouting intensified, Speaker Hussain adjourned the House twice to let ministers persuade the Opposition to end its protest.

Finally, the Speaker adjourned the House until tomorrow-- giving a day's time to come to terms.

The Assembly witnessed unprecedented noisy scenes on March 5 after the copies of the Constitution containing the LFO were tabled in the House with Opposition members shouting "no LFO, no" and "go Musharraf, go".

A woman member of the PPP stole the show by being the first to reach the Speaker's rostrum and return the Constitution's copy while Liaqat Baloch of the MMA denounced the LFO.

For pro-military Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q), Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali said it backed the LFO and would not take it back.

Information and Media Development Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed told reporters that the Opposition parties, by their protest on the LFO, had diverted attention from more important issue of foreign policy, which was scheduled for a debate on March 5.

"In the current situation, I think the issue of Iraq was one of the important issues of the region which should have been discussed and Opposition should have been given fruitful suggestions to the government to take decision whether the government should support Iraq or not," he said.

PTI