SO wounded and hurt are the protagonists, you could be forgiven for thinking they are auditioning for a walk-on part in a Bollywood flick. There are senators Raza Rabbani and Aitzaz Ahsan and co: miffed, upset, indignant, simply unable to understand why the traditions and etiquette of their sober upper house in parliament have been so churlishly disregarded by the interior minister, Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan. And then, there is Chaudhry Nisar, so hurt, so puzzled, so bewildered — why doesn’t the opposition recognise him for the heroic and selfless public servant that he is? Why must they harass him when all he is trying to do is his job? And caught between the two sides personifying virtue and all things right and parliamentary is the present Senate session. Inside the Senate, there are few senators and the quorum barely present. Outside the Senate is the combined opposition led by the PPP, which has decided to set up their own little faux Senate session in the great outdoors of the parliamentary premises.

If the interior minister seems a bit hot under the collar, the opposition senators led by Mr Rabbani and Mr Ahsan must be barely able to suppress their glee. For the little Senate storm in a teacup from last week has now spilled over into the saucer and may yet cause some real damage. And all because Chaudhry Nisar is so far unwilling to swallow his pride and apologise. ‘Sorry’ isn’t such a small word after all, at least for the interior minister. Is it because he sees himself as the de facto deputy prime minister? Even so, he should take a leaf out of the real prime minister’s new book: avoid unnecessary crises. And few can make a mountain out of an unparliamentary molehill as Mr Rabbani and Mr Ahsan can.