ISLAMABAD: Drawn back to the house by relentless prodding from his opponents, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s long-awaited return to parliament on Tuesday turned out to be a damp squib as he was greeted by empty opposition benches and left without making a statement.

True to their word, the opposition parties stayed away from the house as long as Deputy Speaker Murtaza Javed Abbasi was presiding.

The prime minister arrived in the National Assembly after inaugurating the ‘Green Parliament’ solar power project with Sardar Ayaz Sadiq, but the speaker – who never misses a session where the PM is in attendance – was conspicuous by his absence from the house.

This detail did not escape the eagle-eyed opposition leader, Syed Khursheed Shah. Returning to the house after Chaudhry Bashir Virk took over presiding duties, he railed against both the PM and the speaker, accusing them of orchestrating this pantomime-like routine.

“The PM should’ve felt our absence. If someone else were PM, he may have personally tried to bring the opposition back. This would have added to his political stature. We wanted to say some things in the PM’s presence but the government deliberately kept the opposition out of the house so they won’t have to answer tough questions,” he contended.

He then trained his guns on Sardar Ayaz Sadiq, saying that the speaker knew that the opposition would not come if the deputy speaker was presiding. “You have set this precedent, not us. Next time, we won’t show up either,” he said, pointedly.

When asked about the engagements that kept the speaker away from the session, NA Director Media Mohammad Mohsin Iqbal told Dawn that after inaugurating the solar power project, Sardar Ayaz Sadiq met envoys from Iran and Uzbekistan, and was busy preparing to receive a delegation from Afghanistan later in the evening.

The seeds of these tensions were sown on Monday when Deputy Speaker Murtaza Javed Abbasi cast the deciding vote in the otherwise mundane matter of the president’s vote of thanks.

Mr Shah maintained that the opposition had more numbers than the treasury, but the final count had remained 34-34, allowing the deputy speaker to cast a “partisan” deciding vote.

“We wanted to change something that would have added to the president’s stature, but [the deputy speaker] went and made that controversial. It was a vote of thanks, not a constitutional amendment for God’s sake,” Mr Shah said.

It was the presiding officer, however, who got the last word. Appreciating Mr Shah’s remarks, Chaudhry Bashir Virk maintained that by staying away from the house while the PM was in attendance, the opposition had lost the chance to convey their point of view to him.

During his brief visit, the PM was mostly mobbed by lawmakers wanting a photo-op with the first-among-equals. He also rose on his seat to vote on a number of amendments and resolutions. Thanks to his presence, the treasury benches also showed signs of life, with senior ministers such as Ishaq Dar, Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, Khawaja Asif and Pervaiz Rashid also attending.

But the numbers waned as soon as the leader of the house left the building.

Published in Dawn, February 24th, 2016