ISLAMABAD: Amid an unceasing censure from their foes, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his colleagues would hardly hide their worry in the National Assembly on Thursday, with one minister bemoaning sleepless nights being a prime ministerial bad luck.

The prime minister came to the house beaming, for his first appearance in its present session that began on Monday, but stayed only briefly as he seemed in a hurry to get the day’s sitting cut short for some unexplained other business.

His arrival, to usual cheers from the treasury benches, came after opposition lawmakers had blasted the authorities for allegedly seizing motorcycles and raiding homes of political activists to discourage participation in a planned Aug 14 march on Islamabad for an indefinite ‘dharna’, or sit-in, by the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf.

The Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs, Sheikh Aftab Ahmed, rejected the charges, though he acknowledged police checking of documents of motorcycles, as many as 100,000 of which PTI Chairman Imran Khan has threatened to bring in the so-called Azadi March from Lahore to Islamabad.

But, in the heat of a hard-hitting harangue against the march, the junior minister and the ruling party’s chief whip preferred to talk also of discomforts of a prime minister when his own party’s government faced a virtual crisis, seizing upon a remark by PTI President and a former PML-N figure, Makhdoom Javed Hashmi, that he had never desired to become prime minister.

“Hashmi Sahib, you are lucky,” he said, adding: “If you had become prime minister you would have lost your sleep and peace at night.”

Mr Sharif, who came to the house a little later as Leader of the Opposition Khursheed Ahmed Shah had just begun his speech to open a formal debate on President Mamnoon Hussain’s address to a June 2 joint sitting of parliament, seemed to have convinced the PPP leader and Speaker Ayaz Sadiq to adjourn the house early for something he considered more important to do.

A few minutes’ pause of the proceedings when the muezzin called for Zuhr prayers provided a treat of suspense with the prime minister sending a previously-written chit to the opposition leader through Sheikh Aftab, who later went to the dais for a word with the speaker and then returned to whisper to both Mr Shah and Mr Sharif.

Just as the muezzin finished his Azan, Mr Shah told the speaker that he would resume his speech on Friday and requested an adjournment of the house, which was done without any questions.

That sparked speculations the prime minister might be seeking some immediate role of the opposition leader to avert, or face off, the threat from the PTI ‘dharna’, which Imran Khan has threatened would not be lifted until the end of what he calls Mr Sharif’s “monarchy” and a decision for early fresh elections because of what the party sees as massive rigging in last year’s general elections.

In the brief part of his speech at the start of the debate on the presidential address and in remarks calling for the return of the allegedly seized motorcycles, Mr Shah referred to “rumours” and talk of a derailment of the democratic system or “revolution” and said all parties in parliament were committed to democracy and that any party toppling democracy would have its name listed with dictators.

But the PPP has made an active support to the prime minister conditional to the withdrawal of what is regarded as a monstrous government’s notification of last month that empowers it to call in troops in Islamabad under Article 245 of the Constitution without judicial oversight.

Not all of half a dozen opposition lawmakers who protested against the alleged seizure of motorcycles and raids on houses spoke about the invocation of Article 245, which had evoked fireworks in a separate debate on Tuesday. PTI leader Javed Hashmi described the situation as “unusual”, though he called the parliamentary system and parliament as “our refuge”.

Published in Dawn, August 8th, 2014