ISLAMABAD: Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan on Saturday not only vowed to resign from his post but also to leave politics for good if allegations hurled at him and his late brother in Parliament were proven to be true.

At the start of today's press conference, a disgruntled Nisar said that this would be shortest press conference of his career. He also requested reporters not to ask questions at the end of the press conference.

The interior minister said that despite prevailing political crises, he became the focus of yesterday’s defining and decisive joint session of the Parliament.

“Whatever was said about me in the Assembly was unprecedented, questions were raised about my late brother.”

“My conscience is clear. I wanted to respond to the allegations in Parliament, but showed restraint on the prime minister’s request in a bid to diffuse the current political impasse,” he added.

The interior minister did say he would be putting grievances aside for the sake of democracy, but he also proposed the formation of a judicial commission comprising “one, two or three retired judges to probe into the allegations hurled at me and my late brother.”

“Yesterday’s speech in the NA should be considered an FIR against me… I will not only resign from my post but also leave politics for good if even one per cent of allegations are proven against me.”

Chaudhry Nisar said that he was ready to accept Justice (retd) Wajihuddin and Justice (retd) Tariq Mehmood as commission members.

How things fell apart

A much-touted unity of parliament against a siege by protesters threatening Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s government was thrown into disarray on Thursday, when Chaudhry Nisar launched a tirade against Leader of Opposition in the Senate Aitzaz Ahsan, accusing the PPP senator of using “politics for business” and being “the representative and facilitator of (an unspecified) biggest land mafia of the country”.

Read editorial: Nisar’s tirade

The PPP had demanded that Nisar apologise or be sacked.

In an attempt to diffuse the situation, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif apologised to both Ahsan and Khursheed Ahmed Shah, Leader of Opposition in the National Assembly, on the fourth day of a joint sitting of the two houses.

Nawaz' apology was not however followed by an outright apology by Nisar today.

During Friday's session, Aitzaz Ahsan had appeared to be seeking the removal of Chaudhry Nisar by suggesting that the prime minister should reshuffle his cabinet to induct “so much talent sitting behind you” on the back benches.

He also apparently suggested Nisar's involvement in alleged wrongdoing by Punjab revenue officials in Rawalpindi, and cited an alleged hesitation of a brother of the minister as defence secretary to notify the appointment of a new army chief on Oct 12, 1999. This Aitzaz said had given other generals time to lead a coup against Nawaz after he had sacked army chief General Pervez Musharraf.

Aitzaz also indirectly accused the interior minister of betraying Nawaz, with an eye on his job.

Separately on Friday, PPP Co-Chairman Asif Ali Zardari deplored the exchange between the two men, calling it “unfortunate”. However, he hastened to add that Ahsan was “justified” in his outburst, but the PPP would not make it a sticking point with the ruling party.

During Friday’s proceedings, Nisar looked very agitated as the opposition continued to take potshots at him. The PM was seen repeatedly asking Nisar to stay calm as an enraged Aitzaz Ahsan rambled on.

His behaviour obviously disturbed the prime minister who called Nisar and urged him not to engage in this exchange any further.

After leaving the parliament on Friday, Chaudhry Nisar had announced that he would respond to the allegations leveled against him at a press conference at 11am on Saturday morning. But on Friday night, the prime minister asked Nisar to meet him at 10am, ostensibly to prevail upon him not to add any more fuel to the fire.

Following the PM’s invitation, Chaudhry Nisar announced he had delayed his press conference at Punjab House and said he would hold it later on Saturday evening.

A senior PML-N leader told Dawn that Chaudhry Nisar would not do anything to aggravate the situation, but confirmed that he had refused to accept repeated requests by party lawmakers to end the controversy.