INTERIOR Minister Nisar Ali Khan appears to have a notoriously thin skin. It was recently on display when Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly Khursheed Shah did what he seems to do best — provoke the interior minister.

Earlier in the week, Mr Shah castigated the interior minister for his alleged unavailability in parliament and inaction over many parts of the National Action Plan.

As soon as the interior minister rediscovered his health — his indisposition was perhaps the reason why he kept away from the public gaze after criticism of his ministry — he has seen it fit to assail Mr Shah.

It has been a thoroughly dubious attack. The recent carnage at Bacha Khan University in Charsadda was not an isolated incident as the interior minister has suggested, nor is there an obvious reason to deny an independent investigation into the circumstances that allowed the attack to take place.

Sadly, the interior minister’s belligerence is not new. At the height of the PTI protest on Constitution Avenue, Chaudhry Nisar turned his guns on veteran PPP senator Aitzaz Ahsan.

At that particular moment, the PML-N needed every bit of democratic support that it could muster in parliament. Instead, bizarrely, the interior minister turned the special joint session of parliament called to reinforce support for democracy into a slanging match with Mr Ahsan.

For some reason — blame it on Nawaz Sharif who even now seems unwilling to rein in his interior minister or the latter politician himself who came across as de facto deputy prime minister, unwilling to accept a role equal to the rest of the cabinet — Chaudhry Nisar was allowed to undermine the entire joint session of parliament.

It was a ghastly performance in September 2014 but unfortunately, he does not appear to have learned any lessons.

Undeniably, there have been many faults in Chaudhry Nisar’s parliamentary career. However, the role of Khursheed Shah as leader of the opposition is not altogether commendable either.

Mr Shah has proved himself in parliament as an orator and a combatant, but what of the timing of each of his speeches? Ultimately, it appears that whatever the legitimacy of his complaints, there is a link to the pressure on the PPP — or elements close to the PPP leadership — in Sindh.

The ongoing incarceration of Dr Asim Hussain appears to have inordinately drawn the attention of the PPP. In fact, be it Dr Hussain or others accused of crimes connected to the very apex of the PPP leadership in parliament, the party only appears to become active when it finds itself under attack, either in Sindh or at the centre.

The interior minister was wrong to respond in the manner he did and Mr Shah was wrong to attack.

Regrettably, it appears that the only thing the parliamentary leadership is interested in is scoring political points.

Published in Dawn, January 30th, 2016