The AL lawmakers staged noisy protest when Abbas asked Hasina to apologise for making 'untrue and baseless' statements about him recently during budget discussion.

"Opposition Leader Sheikh Hasina will have to apologise for this, otherwise I will sue her," Abbas said reading out a written statement in the House.

The minister brushed aside Hasina's allegations that he was involved in influencing the police to 'torture' MNH Bulu, a director of Boishakhi, a private television channel.

The statement prompted the main opposition lawmakers to make noisy protest. They asked the Speaker to expunge the minister's statement.

Amid demand from the opposition bench, Acting Speaker Akhtar Hamid Siddiqui handed the microphone to Shahjahan Khan of AL who accused the Speaker of taking the minister's side and demanded expurgation of the remarks from the House proceedings.

But Health Minister Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain supported his cabinet colleague and said Mirza Abbas had not made any disputed or abusive comments.

Mosharraf said the House cannot hold any discussion on a minister's personal clarification which was made under Article 274 of the Rules of Procedures.

Deputy Leader of the Opposition Abdul Hamid said he would not respond to the minister's [Abbas] statement that reflected 'bad taste'. "But, it's the responsibility of the chair to halt and expunge when such statements are being made against the leader of the opposition," he told the House.

Agriculture Minister MK Anwar supported the deputy leader of the opposition and said the Chair should expunge all attacking and unparliamentary words of both sides.

During the debate, Krishak Sramik Janata League lawmaker Abdul Kader Siddiqui sought floor. As the Speaker refused him, the lawmaker walked out of the House.