Pak national assembly prorogued
after uproar over amendments

Pakistan's national assembly has been prorogued indefinitely amid an uproar by mainstream political parties over constitutional amendments brought in by President Pervez Musharraf.

Musharraf prorogued the national assembly on Monday night after the Islamist alliance Muthahida Majlis-e-Amal and the Pakistan Peoples Party along with other opposition parties obstructed the proceedings with slogans against the president and his amendments which gave more powers to him, including the authority to dismiss parliament.

The House proceedings

were disrupted for the second week in a succession.

However, Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali, in an apparent move to silence the opposition, made a brief speech on the Iraq crisis saying his government had decided not to support any "designs of war" on Iraq.

Jamali's remarks failed to please the opposition members who continued their slogan-chanting until the speaker vacated his chair after reading out the president's order proroguing the assembly indefinitely.