ISLAMABAD, Jan 23: An apparently carefree sitting of the National Assembly on Friday heard a grim warning from a dovish PML-N lawmaker of a possible turmoil in the country if the two Sharif brothers leading his party were disqualified by a controversial judiciary they do not recognise.

Khawaja Saad Rafique also voiced fears that a perceived “constitutional crisis” in the country could give birth to “new political and social crises” while speaking in a staggered debate on President Asif Ali Zardari’s address to a joint sitting of parliament in September.

The vocal member from Lahore who usually seeks peace between the country’s main political forces was referring to petitions being heard by a Supreme Court bench about the eligibility of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif and Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif to hold elective public offices and an apparent hesitation of the PPP-led coalition government to restore parliament’s supremacy by divesting the presidency of autocratic powers assumed by former president Pervez Musharraf.

The speech was the most serious part of the day’s sitting which was otherwise marked by a casual in the house and even some indiscipline that prompted Speaker Fehmida Mirza to point seemingly an accusing finger at Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani for “a lot of disturbance” near his desk due to members swarming there possibly to seek favours.

Mr Rafique, son of veteran politician Khwaja Mohammad Rafique who was murdered in Lahore in the 1970s, also urged the lower house to “prove its existence” by its conduct as one of the possible ways to rectify the present situation — others including a reinstatement of the remainder of about 60 judges sacked by General Musharraf under his controversial Nov 3, 2007, emergency proclamation and restoration of the prime ministerial powers.

While referring to the cases of the Sharif brothers, who have refused to appear before judges who took oath under General Musharraf’s Nov 3 Provisional Constitution Order, he said:: “The sword of disqualification will not run on only two necks but on the entire (political) system.”

Asserting that people rather than courts could decide the fate of political parties, he said a disqualification order against the Sharif brothers would raise so much dust and cause such a turmoil that “will end distinction between truth and falsehood”.

He also asked the federal government to withdraw its appeal to the Supreme Court against a Lahore High Court bench ruling that disqualified Mr Nawaz Sharif from seeking election to the National Assembly on the basis of a controversial conviction by a special court under the Musharraf regime and suggested probe by a tribunal about a mix-up of Punjab assembly seats won by Mr Shahbaz Sharif. But he did not elaborate how such a course could benefit the Sharif brothers.

The speaker’s stricture came when several members of the ruling coalition had crowded around Mr Gilani’s front-row desk to talk to him or get papers signed by him while the house was discussing a call-attention notice about what its PPP authors called “a high mortality” rate at Islamabad’s tiny Marghazar zoo.

“There is a lot disturbance on the first two rows (of seats),” the speaker remarked, referring to the members standing or seated there waiting for their turn for a word with the prime minister, and asked them to go to their own seats.

But her advice seemed largely ignored as the crowding continued and a comparative discipline returned to the area only after the prime minister left while the house had taken up another call-attention notice before being adjourned for a two-day weekend until 5pm on Monday.