ISLAMABAD: It was more smiles than frowns in the National Assembly on Tuesday despite a recent government-opposition standoff and a challenging statement by the interior minister in the house that former president Pervez Musharraf was allowed safe exit from the country in late 2008 with the agreement of 'all stakeholders' In what looked like a change in the opposition mood, a usual rabble-rouser from the opposition PML-N, Hanif Abbasi, complimented the government for responding to opposition 'cheerfully' and then got an assurance from Interior Minister Rehman Malik that severe gas shortages in Islamabad and Rawalpindi, which provoked violent protests on Monday, would ease by the evening with the removal of a 'technical fault' in the supply system of Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Ltd.

But amid a cordiality that followed, the minister was unsparing when another PML-N member from Lahore, Sheikh Rohail Asghar, ridiculed the PPP-led coalition government for allowing Gen Musharraf an honourable exit in August 2008 after he had resigned in the face of a parliamentary impeachment threatened by both the major parties.

'All stakeholders had decided that for the time being no immediate action be taken against Musharraf,' Mr Malik said and offered to have a discussion 'with you' on the issue.

The minister did not identify the stakeholders who agreed on the treatment to be given to Gen Musharraf at the time when the PML-N had pulled out of the coalition government after a brief participation but was in league with the PPP in impeachment plans.

Mr Malik also told the house that Gen Musharraf was soon going to be declared a 'proclaimed offender' by a court in Rawalpindi for not appearing in a trial for the Dec 27, 2007, assassination of former prime minister and PPP leader Benazir Bhutto and then challenged the PML-N to go to the Supreme Court in pursuit of its oftrepeated demand for a treason trial of the former president and said 'we will be behind you' if it were done.

But despite apparent point-scoring against each other, Mr Abbasi's offer to withdraw Friday's protest plan and the interior minister's counsel that the opposition and the government 'sit together to solve as many problems as possible' seemed a far cry from an intense bitterness between the two sides weeks earlier when the PML-N had threatened to launch a 'go Zardari' campaign to topple the government and later went to the Supreme Court for a parallel probe into a controversial memorandum critical of army leadership while the government had already sought investigation by the bipartisan Parliamentary Committee on National Security.

Tuesday's display of peace in the lower house came a day after both Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani and PML-N's opposition leader Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan renewed vows to defend the democratic system if it were threatened by any 'unde-mocratic force'.

This also follows return of Mr Zardari early on Monday from Dubai after a treatment of a heart ailment that had led to a wave of wild speculations, mainly propagated by some free-wheeling sections of the media, about the political future of the president and the present government.

However, amid smiling faces and handshakes between two sides Prime Minister Gilani also went to the PML-N front benches to meet senior party leader Makhdoom Javed Hashmi a young PML-N lawmaker from Faisalabad, Abid Sher Ali, threatened the start of a 'civil disobedience' movement against what he called a corrupt government if an alleged discrimination against Punjab ruled by his party in gas and electricity was not ended.

The prime minister attended the house briefly towards the fag end of the sitting but did not speak while several members from both sides used points of order to speak on numerous issues, mainly relating to problems of their constituencies, including those relating to sufferings caused by recent floods in Sindh, power cuts and alleged excesses on minority communities and Baloch dissidents, before the house was adjourned until 10am on Wednesday.

PRIVATE BILLS: Earlier, six lawmakers from both the PML-N and PPP introduced a total of six private bills which the government did not oppose.

Three of the bills, which will now be scrutinised by relevant standing committees before coming back to the house, were introduced by PML-N member Ms Tasneem Siddiqui from Punjab that sought amendments to the Civil Servants Act 1973, the Pakistan Citizenship Act of 1951, and the Representation of People Act 197 to provide for barring persons not holding Pakistan's citizenship from appointment in the country's civil service, obligatory choice of citizenship on attaining the age of 18 years, and an obligatory declaration against dual-nationality by a candidate in an election.

A bill moved by PPP member Syed Nasir Ali Shah from Balochistan seeks an amendment to the Representation of the People Act to make the election process easy and accessible to citizens by measures such as reducing the limit on election expenses to Rs100,000 and Rs50,000 for the National Assembly and a provincial assembly, respectively, and prescribing harsher punishment for violations.

A bill introduced by PPP member justice (retd) Fakhrun-un-Nisa Khokhar seeks an amendment to the Pakistan Penal Code and the Code of Criminal Procedure to provide for up to 10 years and a minimum of seven years of imprisonment and a minimum fine of Rs500,000 for defiling or damaging a grave and 10 years imprisonment and a minimum of Rs1 million in fine for defiling, damaging or selling a human corpse.

PPP member Ms Yasmeen Rehman introduced a bill seeking an amendment to the Civil Servants Act to provide safeguards for disabled civil servants against transfer outside their home towns and home districts.