ISLAMABAD: The opposition Jamaat-i-Islami (JI), which is trying to mediate between the government and the protesting parties seeking to oust it through a siege of parliament, warned Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in the National Assembly on Friday against a possible betrayal “from within”.

JI parliamentary leader Sahibzada Tariqullah gave the warning in the presence of the prime minister, who, as on all his three previous appearances in the house during a five-day debate on the prevailing political situation in the country, kept his silence, to the frustration of many who wanted to hear from him. Meanwhile, leaders of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) and Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT) continued demanding his resignation as the main condition to end their now eight-day-old sit-ins.

Also read: Separate rallies expose rifts within PML-N Rawalpindi

Urging the government to tackle the situation tactfully, Mr Tariqullah said that despite the big strength of the ruling PML-N “I fear some Mir Jafar or Mir Sadiq from within yourselves” could emerge as spoilers. It was a reference to the notorious 18th century figures who betrayed local Muslim rulers to help British forces conquer Bengal and the kingdom of Mysore of that time.

Mr Tariqullah, whose party’s emir, Sirajul Haq, has been shuttling recently between the government and protest leaders along with other mediators, did not give the basis of his fears, but, using an Urdu epithet, expressed his dislike for the day “when we may have to say ‘is ghar ko aag lug gayee ghar ke chiragh se’” (this house caught fire from its own lamp).

The JI emir has served as a senior minister in the PTI-led Pakhtunkhwa provincial coalition government but his party opposes the present PTI campaign.

The prime minister heard some more assurances of support and calls from his party members not to resign before the house was adjourned until 5pm on Monday.

The government-allied Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party’s leader Mehmood Khan Achakzai urged the authorities to “do something” to remove occupying protesters from at least one side of the broad Constitution Avenue to allow parliament members, judges of the nearby Supreme Court and diplomats to drive through it.

“Get this road cleared by Monday or decide what we should do,” he said angrily about the situation in which parliament members and journalists have to drive to the Parliament House through an army-manned gate to the Cabinet Division north of parliament.

Journalists staged a walkout from the press gallery after some of them complained that their cars were not allowed even from that gate, forcing them to park their vehicles far away and walk to the Parliament House.

The house also adopted a government-moved resolution condemning alleged attacks on media vehicles by the protesters, without referring to an alleged attack by PML-N workers on the reporter of a private television channel in Rawalpindi.

Published in Dawn, August 23rd, 2014