ISLAMABAD - Opposition parties staged a token walkout in the National Assembly on Wednesday against the shortage and inflated tariffs of gas and electricity. On a point of order, Leader of the Opposition Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan pointed out the acute shortage of gas and electricity and criticised the government for raising their tariffs. Despite extensive gas loadshedding, there is no decrease in gas bills while the government is busy increasing the rates. One hundred and seventy millions people are in problem and we will have to debate on their problem. The concerned minister should brief the House, Nisar said. Criticising the Government for following Musharrafs policies, Nisar said that the Government in December last announced to increase the gas rates from 16 to 18 percent but the actual increase was 100 percent. In July, the rates were again raised and now again the Government has increased it, the Opposition Leader said. He added the Government had increased gas rates to 140 percent in a year. Later he led a token walkout of PML-N over what he called indifference of the Government towards problems of the citizens. PML-Q also joined them in the walkout. Responding to Leader of Opposition, Minister for Petroleum and Natural Resources Syed Naveed Qamar said that previous governments ignored the supply issue and no steps were taken to expedite local exploration or import gas and electricity, which caused a gap between supply and demand. The credit also goes to the present government for taking substantial steps for initiating concrete work on Iran Gas Pipeline Project and import of LNG, he said. Incumbent government has awarded record number of licenses for oil and gas exploration, the Minister informed the House. He said the legislators who were expressing confidence in President Asif Ali Zardari were aware of his achievements in different fields. Meanwhile, Federal Minister for Defence Production Abdul Qayyum Khan Jatoi also staged a token walkout against the Punjab Police. Earlier he told the House that a man was killed in his constituency and the case was also registered with the respective police station but Punjab Police instead of arresting the killers nabbed the poor applicant. The National Assembly later unanimously passed a resolution condemning publishing of blasphemous caricatures of Holy Prophet Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Him) by a Denmark newspaper and demanded of the governments of Norway and Denmark to take action against them. The House also demanded of the UN to frame law to punish those who were involved in blasphemous acts against Hazrat Adam, Hazrat Musa, Jesus Christ, Holy Prophet Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Him) and other prophets. The resolution was red by MNA Haji Fazal Karim. The Lower House also passed the Public Defender and Legal Aid Office Bill 2009. The bill would provide free legal aid to needy and indigent persons at tehsil level. However, PML-N demanded amendments in the bill that were rejected by the House. On the occasion, Minister for Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs Dr Babar Awan congratulated the people of Pakistan and National Assembly for the bill. He said that the bill was the need of the people. He added that the Federal Government would fund the defenders at all level to materialise the dream of poor. Amir Muqam said that Railways Minister Bilour should take notice and call an enquiry into the train accident that claimed the lives of innocent children. Legislator Abid Sher Ali condemned the statement of Interior Minister Sindh Zulfiqar Mirza and demanded of the government to register a case and arrest him. The PPP legislator Akhwanzada Chitan said that he condemned the letter, which was written by a son of Mian Nawaz Sharif requesting the then Indian Prime Minister Vajpai to save his father from Musharraf. MNA Marvi Memon, however, criticised the federal and provincial governments for baton-charge on people protesting against the shortage of gas and electricity in Lahore. She also asked the government when it was providing proof of Indian involvement in Balochistan to New Delhi and the world. PML-Q MNA Raza Hayat Hiraj said that extensive loadshedding was disturbing the agriculturists and the Government would have to take steps immediately if it wanted to produce better results in the field of agriculture. Responding to Ch. Nisar Ali Khans speech, he said it was true that he met Mian Nawaz Sharif but it was on the direction of his party head. MQM legislator and Minister for Port and Shipping Babar Ghori told the House that Pakistani ship, which was hijacked by Somalian pirates, would reach Pakistan today (Thursday). Earlier during the question hour session, the State Minister for Foreign Affairs told the House that at present there were 848 Pakistani prisoners in Indian jails in which 785 were civil prisoners while 63 were fishermen. To a supplementary question, he said that the Government was facing a lot of problems. The dialogue process has been suspended and Indian government was not giving counsellor access, he added. Talking about Dr. Afia, he said that the lawyers were hired after consultation with her brother. To a question, Minister for Health Makhdoom Shahabuddin said as many as 97, 400 people were HIV infected in Pakistan.