ISLAMABAD - The opposition parties in the Senate on Friday staged a protest walkout from the House after the Government laid National Accountability (Amendment) Ordinance, 2010 before the Upper House. They termed it as a calculated move on the part of Government to curtail powers of Chairman NAB. It was the second walkout of the members from opposition benches in the Senate on the same day as the legislators had staged a token walkout of the House already during question-hour on prolonged loadshedding hours in the country. They called it failure of Minister of Water and Power, Raja Pervez Ashraf, to meet the power needs of Pakistan. Minister for Law, Dr Babar Awan laid the National Accountability (Amendment) Ordinance, 2010 (Ordinance No. XVIII of 2010) before the Senate as required by clause (2) of Article 89 of the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. The Ordinance was referred to the concerned Standing Committee of the House for further consideration. The two senators of the opposition criticised the move of the Government to present the Ordinance saying that the matter was concealed from the public, Supreme Court of Pakistan and Parliament. However, Law Minister rebutted all the allegations levelled against the Government before the House was prorogued sine die. Zafar Ali Shah of PML-N condemned in strong words that the Ordinance had been promulgated on 16th of September saying that it was the wrong time to introduce it when sessions of both the Houses were being summoned. He called it a malafide intention of the Government saying that the Ordinance had been laid before the House when it was being prorogued. It was signed on September 16 and took 15 days to reach the Parliament, he added. He termed it a bid of the Government to curtail the powers of the Chairman NAB. Professor Khurshid Ahmed endorsing Zafar said that according to the rules of Business of the House, the ordinance should be laid before the very first sitting of the session while it was being presented in the last sitting of the session so that it could not be debated in the Senate. He asked the Government why it was not made public after its promulgation and was kept in secret from the press? Dr Babar Awan refuted all the allegations saying that nothing was kept secret, as the Ordinance had been published in the gazette of Pakistan. He said that nothing was done unconstitutional as the constitution provided 120 days to present an ordinance before any House of the Parliament. No one had curtailed powers of the Chairman NAB as after the establishment of Islamabad High Court (IHC), the cases pending before the other accountability courts had to ultimately go to new accountability courts relating to their territorial jurisdiction, he added.