Chaudhary Nisar has an uncanny issue with his mercurial outbursts: he always ends up bursting out against the wrong person, at the wrong time and for the wrong reason.

He definitely went overboard in censuring fellow minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi for his failure to respond to a query about natural gas shortage on time.

Abbasi had actually informed Chief Whip that he would be late and returned to the House later to take up the motion. But the damage had been done by then. Interior Minister virtually egged on the opposition to move a privilege motion against the Petroleum Minister and was overly harsh in his censuring. 

True, the government gets an almost daily battering as its members do not take the Parliament seriously. The Cabinet follows the Prime Minister’s lead in skipping the proceedings, which in turn encourages the rest of the lot to be equally casual about what goes around the Parliament. All of this gives the impression of a rudderless and a non-serious government.

Nisar was quick to agree with the opposition when it protested over the cavalier attitude of the government. He expressed his helpless in sorting out his colleagues and asked them to either “leave your seats for others or take your work seriously.

But his ire against Abbasi was wrong for multiple reasons. Shahid Khaqan Abbasi happens to be one of the most responsible PML (N) Ministers, others being Khawaja Saad Rafiq, Sheikh Aftab and Jam Kamal.  Always well-prepared, Abbasi is generally present to attend his parliamentary business. It also seemed odd as he was not a novice in the party and, if it comes to that, can boast a better political pedigree than of the Chaudhary from Chakri. Nisar had no business to act as a headmaster and Abbsai, with over two decades of party loyalty behind him, no student.

This only trickled the mischievous imagination of our pundits to speculate that may be, deep down, Nisar nursed a grudge against Abbasi for lording over his favourite Petroleum Ministry that he always held in previous tenures. Or may be Nisar wants to switch this concrete ring around his neck called Interior Ministry with the Petroleum.

This might save him from all the battering that he gets for not delivering in his own Ministry. This was another reason for which Nisar did not have the credentials to admonish Abbasi.

Published on: thespokesman.pk

Date: Friday, 13 December 2013