ISLAMABAD: Apparently a bold move by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif saved one of Pakistan’s longest budget speeches from being torn asunder by religious zeal in the National Assembly on Tuesday, after the event was already overshadowed by MQM leader Altaf Hussain taken into custody by London police.

As a mark of concern about their self-exiled leader’s fate, none of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement’s 24 lawmakers in the National Assembly turned up to hear Finance Minister Ishaq Dar unveil the present government’s second budget – though some of their colleagues in the Senate attended the sitting there afterwards – while another conspicuous absence was that of Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, possibly due to related protest violence in Karachi.

Possible implications of the London police action against Mr Hussain over money-laundering allegations, rather the budget for fiscal 2014-15, was the hottest topic discussed in the corridors and galleries of the parliament house.

But nobody brought it up inside the house, although a usually troublesome independent member from Punjab province, Jamshed Ahmed Dasti, tried to interrupt the finance minister’s harangue of more than two hours over claims of the government’s achievements over the past one year, drawing a warning from Speaker Ayaz Sadiq of using “other means” to silence him.

Though Mr Dar repeatedly received what looked like a command acclaim from the lawmakers of his PML-N, the prime minister seemed to have realised that an approaching maghreb prayers could bring a recess in the budget speech, which never happened in Pakistan before.

While the finance minister kept speaking, the prime minister called some of his cabinet ministers one by one who took turns to consult the speaker through his secretary and leaders of some opposition parliamentary parties, and apparently received their consent.

As a result of an apparent agreement, the speaker departed from the usual practice when he did not adjourn the house after the muezzin called for maghreb prayers, allowing the finance minister half an hour more to finish his speech.

It has been a routine in the National Assembly to adjourn the house for maghreb prayers soon after azan, and the chair became more strict in observing this practice after a lawmaker of the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-F, Maulana Amir Zama, came out to lead zohr prayers on the chamber floor on May 7 when a break was not ordered, forcing the chair to adjourn the house for the day.

Mr Dasti shouted “it is all lies” and tore up a copy of Mr Dar’s speech as then minister spoke of his government’s perceived economic successes. “Don’t compel me to use other means,” the speaker told Mr Dasti, apparently warning him of being removed from the house by the assembly security staff, after the member persisted in shouting. However, the protester sat down in his seat after persuasion by minister of state for parliamentary affairs, Sheikh Aftab Ahmed.

Published in Dawn, June 4th, 2014