ISLAMABAD, June 23: Tempers frayed in the National Assembly on Monday as the Pakistan Muslim League-N dissociated itself from a controversial expansion of the Supreme Court through the Finance Bill in a move that could aggravate a rift in the ruling coalition over a promised restoration of deposed judges.

But the Pakistan People’s Party maintained a mysterious silence over its handiwork as the PML-N and its arch-rival Pakistan Muslim League-Q fought a wordy duel before the house approved supplementary demands for grants for the outgoing fiscal 2007-08 and two other previous years in a lively finale of the new government’s first budget.

Minister in charge for finance Naveed Qamar told the assembly on Sunday that a Finance Bill clause that provided for increasing the Supreme Court strength to 29 judges from the present 16 had been drafted by PML-N Senator Ishaq Dar after a PML-N lower house member called it a “mockery of our constitutional structure” even though the key coalition partner had not announced opposition to the move or an abstention from the vote.

But PML-N parliamentary leader Nisar Ali Khan, who was not present in the house when the Finance Bill was passed, said at the start of Monday’s proceedings that his party had reservations about the court expansion and that it had not voted for the controversial clause though it supported the bill as a whole, which gave effect to the Rs2.01 trillion budget for financial year 2008-09.

He said that Sunday’s strong remarks by PML-N member Ayaz Amir against the judges’ clause “reflected the party policy” and added: “We did not vote for this clause.”

The bill’s clauses were passed one by one by voice vote and nobody was heard saying “no” when the clause about the Supreme Court was put to the house because the main opposition PML-Q party abstained from voting with its ally Muttahida Qaumi Movement apparently going along without a formal announcement.

Some PML-Q members said at the time their party had no objection to increasing the number of judges but was against doing it through a finance bill, which does not go the Senate, rather than a normal act of parliament that must be passed by both houses of parliament.

PPP’s reasons for seeking the increase through the Finance Bill are that an ordinary bill could not get through the 100-seat Senate where the till recently ruling PML-Q and its allies are still in a majority and the ruling coalition is in a minority.

Mr Nisar’s disavowal of the move contrasted with the previously known party position that the PML-N would agree to increasing the court strength despite its reservations, which a party spokesman confirmed on Monday, and could add to tensions with the PPP over the issue of deposed judges.

“We supported the bill knowing this clause was there,” PML-N spokesman Siddiqul Farooque told Dawn.

While no PPP minister or member rose to respond to the PML-N parliamentary leader, the PML-Q took up the cudgels with its former minister of state for law Raza Hayat Harraj questioning Mr Nisar’s talk of reservations after the bill had been passed and asked: “Who are we trying to fool?”

Mr Harraj as well as PML-Q parliamentary leader Faisal Saleh Hayat and two other members -- Ms Donya Aziz and Ms Marvi Memon -- used their speeches on the supplementary demands for grants to describe the controversial clause as an indemnity for a Provisional Constitution Order (PCO) issued by President Pervez Musharraf on Nov 3, 2007, under which about 60 judges of the Supreme Court and four high courts were sacked for refusing or not being called upon to take a new oath of office.

Strangely, even this charge evoked no response from the PPP, although it says it regards the president’s Nov 3 emergency proclamation and the PCO as unconstitutional steps but does not want to throw out the president’s handpicked judges who took the oath under the PCO while seeking to restore those who were deposed, including Supreme Court chief justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry.

The Finance Bill clause amends the Supreme Court (Number of Judges) Act of 1997 to increase the number to a maximum of 29 from 16 to be effective from Nov 3, which the PML-Q members said amounted to indemnifying the Nov 3 PCO.

Political sources said the issue is likely to heat up after a bench of three PCO judges of the Lahore High Court on Monday disqualified PML-N leader Nawaz Sharif from contesting for a National Assembly seat in by-elections on June 26.

The PML-N wants reinstatement of the deposed judges through a resolution of the National Assembly as agreed in the “Murree Declaration” it signed with the PPP in March. The PPP, which has come under attack from both friends and foes for missing two deadlines for such a restoration, wants it to be done through a constitution amendment package that also seeks to clip the president’s controversial powers to dissolve the National Assembly, sack a prime minister and appoint armed forces chiefs and provincial governors.

But the package seems to have little chances of success as coalition allies do not have the required two-thirds majority in the Senate to pass a constitutional amendment, although they have this majority in the 342-seat National Assembly.