ISLAMABAD: A much-touted unity of parliament against a siege by protesters threatening Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s government was thrown into disarray on Friday by a row over some unsavoury comments of Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan against PPP Senator Aitzaz Ahsan. The party demanded that the minister apologise or be sacked.

Mr Sharif apologised to both Mr Ahsan, the Leader of Opposition in the Senate, and Khursheed Ahmed Shah, Leader of Opposition in the National Assembly, on the fourth day of a joint sitting of the two houses for overnight comments of his cabinet’s senior-most member, but a defiant minister, known for a stiff neck, did not.

Chaudhry Nisar tried to speak, probably to respond to a counter-assault by the two PPP lawmakers, who accused him of betraying the prime minister with an eye on his job, but was not permitted by his boss before he stormed out of the house in apparent anger.

What a senior lawmaker of the PML-N called a “bushfire” was suppressed for the moment by a hurried adjournment of the house by Speaker Sardar Ayaz Sadiq for a two-day weekend until Monday.

The spectacle showed Chaudhry Nisar making some allegedly threatening gestures and remarks towards Senator Ahsan while sitting on the left side of the prime minister, prompting the PPP leader to complain that the minister was frowning at him and even threatening Mr Sharif.

Its live broadcast by television channels must have come as good news for the nearby protest camps of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf and Pakistan Awami Tehreek as the sign of a fissure in the ranks of their opponents, who have been calling for a wrap-up of their sit-ins that began over three weeks ago.

Earlier, while sitting at another desk, Chaudhry Nisar appeared to be defying an advice sent to him to refrain from speaking as he rose to speak after the speaker had given the floor to Railways Minister Khawaja Saad Rafique.

Mr Sharif had pleaded with the opposition to pass off what had happened after his apologies for the second time since Thursday night and a “considerable pulling up” by Mr Shah earlier, so the house could return to its “bigger objective” of tackling the present situation.

But that did not happen as Senator Ahsan, who rejected as “baseless” the minister’s charges including using “politics for business” and being “the representative and facilitator of (an unspecified) biggest land mafia of the country”, was unimpressed until an apology came from the minister himself.

The senator, who also recounted the political struggle of his ancestors, and of himself and his family members, appeared to be seeking the removal of Chaudhry Nisar by suggesting that the prime minister better reshuffle his cabinet to induct “so much talent sitting behind you” on back benches.

He also apparently suggested the minister’s involvement in alleged wrongdoing by Punjab revenue officials in Rawalpindi and cited an alleged hesitation of a brother of the minister as defence secretary to notify the appointment of a new army chief on Oct 12, 1999. This he said had given other generals time to make a coup against then prime minister Sharif after he had sacked army chief Gen Pervez Musharraf.

But as some chits were handed to him by some party colleagues, Mr Ahsan, borrowing from a story of Hazrat Ali sparing the life of a fallen enemy who had spat at his face, said he was putting his “sword back in the sheath” because the minister had “spat at my face, though it amounts to spitting at the moon”.

But Mr Khursheed Shah gave a much longer drubbing to the interior minister, saying he had “deliberately tried to sabotage” the parliament session so that the prime minister could not emerge victorious in the standoff with the protesting parties and likening his role with that of Mir Sadiq who had betrayed Tipu Sultan.

Condemning the allegations levelled against Senator Ahsan, he said the minister’s statement, sent to reporters on Thursday night, had “strengthened the ranks of those who have made Pakistan hostage” by their sit-ins in Islamabad.

“He should stand up in this house and apologise as the minimum punishment,” he said.

Mr Shah said that although he would not demand it formally, “you may remove him (from the cabinet) if you want”.

He alleged that the minister had “misbehaved” even during a meeting of opposition politicians on Thursday night with the prime minister, whom he asked: “Mian Sahib, now you should recognise who is your friend and who is ‘mar-i-aasteen’ (an enemy in the garb of a friend).”

The prime minister, in his brief speech, confirmed the incident, calling it a “mild altercation”.

Raja Zafarul Haq, the PML-N leader of the House in the Senate, speaking after Mr Shah, called the row a bushfire, which he said should not be allowed to “spread in the whole jungle”.

He too pleaded against rubbing the issue any further after what he called Mr Shah’s effort to “cool the fire” and went to Senator Ahsan’s desk along with Mr Rafique and Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party chief Mehmood Khan Achakzai in what turned out to be an abortive attempt to prevent him from speaking.

Published in Dawn, September 6th , 2014