ISLAMABAD: Two days before the government is to face a potentially major street challenge from the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI), both rivals spent another day in the National Assembly on Friday making vows of war and peace at the cost of other business that provoked a government ally to protest “this tamasha”.

Tirades from PTI vice-chairman Shah Mahmood Qureshi and Railways Minister Khawaja Saad Rafique centring on PTI’s planned march on Sunday did not allow for the resumption of a debate on the prevailing law and order situation, before the house was adjourned for a two-day weekend.

Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan announced on Thursday that the government would allow the protest to be held on the first anniversary of those elections, but the railways minister continued to press fears that he had voiced the previous day, saying the PTI was probably only looking “to play politics” and weaken democracy rather than seeking electoral reform.

And when Mr Qureshi ignored warnings from Deputy Speaker Murtaza Javed Abbasi to finish his speech, Saad Rafique remarked: “Do whatever you like, we will not let you have your way.”

The PTI protest, timed to coincide with protests by Allama Tahirul Qadri’s Pakistan Awami Tehrik in other cities of Pakistan, is centred on perceived hurdles in securing voters’ verification for at least four National Assembly seats in Punjab.

At one point on Friday, the two sides appeared to come closer to the idea of voter verification for four constituencies for both sides, but the divergent procedures proposed by either seemed to make an agreement unlikely any time soon.

In response to a speech in the house on Thursday by PTI chairman Imran Khan, the railways minister had proposed that the PTI agree to scrutiny of four constituencies each by a multi-party fact-finding committee of the house.

Mr Qureshi jumped on the minister’s proposal to suggest that the two sides request the Supreme Court to “reopen four constituencies” of both parties’ choosing at the next court hearing of a PTI petition, though he rejected the idea of forming a fact-finding committee on the grounds that another house committee set up on the suggestion of Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan last year was shot down by Science and Technology Minister Zahid Hamid on the grounds that parliament need not get into electoral disputes.

But Khawaja Rafique said the fact-finding committee he proposed must first set procedures for going to the Supreme Court on the basis of evidence, rather than simply for verification of voters’ thumb imprints because the magnetic ink used for the purpose was defective.

“Come sit with us on Monday, or after your (May 11) rally, if you want to satisfy yourselves,” the minister said. “But if you want to finish the elections, if we fall, you will also fall.”

It was earlier, when Mr Qureshi sought the floor, that Mahmood Khan Achakzai, leader of the government-allied Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party, protested against house business being ignored and what he called a dangerous “toofan-i-badtameezi” (storm of insults) with “somebody taking out a process here and somebody from there”.

“There is a danger to this parliament and to this country (from this trend),” said Mr Achakzai, who, after the muezzin had called for Friday prayers, walked out of the house in apparent anger along with Qaumi Watan Party leader Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao and some Jamaat-i-Islami members after the deputy speaker gave the floor to the railways minister.