Differences between Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan might cost the nation dearly, but we might not realize that before the water is above the danger level.
Chaudhry Nisar has always had the knack of surviving the odds. He never lets his utility or importance diminish, despite so many competitors trying to make him irrelevant.
The differences between the two most powerful people are no more secret. The parliamentarians are perturbed too. They wonder how the government would ensure the execution of the NAP when the interior minister is out of the loop.
"I have moved a resolution to discuss this very important issue," Senator Mushahid Hussain Sayed said. Like others, he knows about the alienation of the interior minister and the frustration of the prime minister on having his most important commander left out.
The differences come out of years of misunderstandings. After the October 1999 military coup, Chaudhry Nisar was the only senior PML-N leader who was not put in jail, but only confined to his comfortable residence. At that time, the Sharif family was languishing in Attock Fort.
Nawaz Sharif appointed Javed Hashmi as the acting president of his party. Many disgruntled leaders, like Chaudhry Shujaat and Mian Azhar, parted ways. A few like Chaudhry Nisar stayed in the party, but made their annoyance known one way or the other.
When the PML-N came back in power in 2013, decisions like making all intelligence agencies including the Inter-Services Intelligence and Military Intelligence answerable to the National Counter-Terrorism Authority (NACTA) resulted in severe pressure that the newly elected prime minister could not bear. The People’s Party interior minister had tried to make a similar move and failed.
Chaudhry Nisar had vowed NACTA would spearhead an anti-terror and anti-extremism drive throughout the country. Tall promises were made, but they could not be fulfilled because the finance ministry headed by Ishaq Dar, a close relative of the prime minister, refused to dole out the desired funding.
Mr Dar is a very important man. Besides running the financial matters of the country, he heads more or less 50 committees including one that deals with the expansion of the Bari Imam Shrine in Islamabad.
Meanwhile, the relations between prime minster and the military establishment deteriorated. Chaudhry Nisar advised the prime minister to replace defense minister Khawaja Asif with someone friendly towards the army. The prime minister ignored the advice.
Last August, PTI chairman Imran Khan and PAT leader Tahirul Qadri stormed Islamabad with thousands of workers and supporters. The purpose was to dislodge the elected government with the help of the military establishment. Initially, Chaudhry Nisar took it upon himself to deal with the invaders. He managed to contain them several kilometers from Parliament House and signed an agreement with Mr Khan that he would not enter the Red Zone. When the PTI chairman followed Mr Qadri towards Parliament House in violation of the agreement, Chaudhry Nisar wanted to use force against the protestors. The prime minister vetoed his decision. A furious Chaudhry Nisar disappeared for days, compelling the prime minister to send emissaries to persuade him to end the protest.
After the Peshawar attack, the interior minister became the most relevant person in Nawaz Sharif's cabinet. A cleanup operation in Karachi also began, against criminals and terrorists including those who were taking shelter under the umbrellas of political parties. The prime minister wanted Chaudhry Nisar to go slow, and take on one entity at the time. The interior minister preferred to make the operation indiscriminate.
In the past, Chaudhry Nisar was a go-between. Now, the prime minister has now established direct and more frequent communication with the army chief. NACTA is out of the picture, and the prime minister's office is directly dealing with the implementation of the NAP. Every week, it issues a detailed press statement full of stats. The interior minister had been a late night friend of Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif. Lately, their relations have taken a dip too.
Although Chaudhry Nisar was opposed to the formation of a judicial commission to probe PTI's allegations of election rigging, at one point the PTI chairman had publicly invited him to join his party. The interior minister called it a joke.
But nothing is impossible in politics. Who could have imagined Javed Hashmi would leave the PML-N and join the PTI?
Shahzad Raza is an Islamabad-based journalist
Twitter: @shahzadrez