I did expect some noise and agitation at parliament house Monday, but not outside of it. That too, right in front of its main gate that provides access to ministers and MNAs.

Nawaz Sharif had come to parliament house to hold long meetings with PML-N parliamentarians. The obvious purpose of his coming there was to pep up their morale and help them reconcile with a long winter of discontent.

A group of sound bite obsessed reporters and camerapersons kept following up until his motorcade reached the main entrance of parliament. That triggered unease amongst the security personnel. One of them in unnecessary panic and without any valid reason pushed a cameraperson of SAMAA TV with bullying vigour. Bokhari, the hapless cameraperson, instantly fell on the ground. That did not satisfy the guard, though.

A video, which has gone viral, clearly shows that as if to teach a lesson to already ‘handled’ Bokhari, the furious guard viciously hit him with foot thumping. After this, the guard recklessly left the scene with a mission accomplished sort of feeling.

His conduct, no doubt, surely deserved a police case and subsequent probe and appropriate punishment. To press for it, reporters and camera crews of all networks were left with no choice but to protest and their colleagues from the print media joined them. Access to parliament was denied to ministers and MNAs by staging a vigourous picket at the main gate.

Elderly and weak types like me left for the press lounge to escape the unbearable chill. We left the press gallery waiting for us, though, in protest.

Finally, Fawad Chaudhry and Umer Ayub Khan came there to promise quick and appropriate action by the police. Marriyum Aurangzeb, the PML-N media handler, kept attempting damage control and with focused diligence, meanwhile.

As the Opposition Leader, Shahbaz Sharif tried to help smooth proceedings in the house. He surely looked upset with the absence of Khawaja Saad Rafique. The NAB had nabbed this PML-N MNA from Lahore last week. The Speaker has yet to order his presence in the house, however, the way he did when it came to the Opposition Leader.

After registering his protest related to absence of Saad Rafique, Shahbaz Sharif switched to recall the recent happenings in Occupied Kashmir. Doing so, he also wanted the national assembly to condemn the brutal killing of 11 unarmed residents of a village of Pulwama in early hours of Saturday morning, via a unanimously adopted resolution.

His intent, no doubt, was noble and praise worthy. Discussing the recent events of Kashmir, however, our “public representatives” sounded frighteningly oblivious to the burning and cruel realities there.

All across the Southern Districts of Occupied Kashmir, highly educated youth from relatively prosperous middle class families have been leaving their homes for so many months for the heights of snowy mountains and jungles covering them.

Split in small and widely scattered groups, these boys don’t appear deeply connected with any well organized resistance group. Without the umbrella of a command and control center they mostly keep preparing themselves to engage the occupied forces in some kind of a military encounter.

They have yet to mount any startling offensive. Facebook etc seem their ‘lethal weapons.’ But the Indian Army consider them harbinger of a new wave and trend of resistance that inspires the mass of people to take death by a bullet, fired by occupying forces, as the sole solace available in the hell called Kashmir these days.

The brutally displayed in Sirno village of Pulwama in early hours of Saturday, in effect, reflected the arrogant obsession of the occupied forces. They have begun to consider each Kashmiri, combatant or non-combatant, as ‘the other,’ who has to be eliminated by all means. It clearly reflects the “Ghazafication” of Occupied Kashmir.

But “our representatives” looked oblivious to this side of the deep and desolate story of Kashmir. They kept on imagining as if the Occupied Kashmir was burning because the Government and the people of Pakistan failed to motivate the world to check, censor and punish India for its conduct there. With also-ran desire, they kept drumming a hackneyed story.

After the usual speeches on Kashmir, Shahbaz Sharif stood again to remind the Speaker that he had yet not signed the formal order ensuring presence of Khawaja Saad Rafique in the house. To press for it, he announced walking out of the house and the PML-N members of the opposition also joined him.

The government could still continue with dealing with the rest of the day’s agenda. It had enough number to maintain quorum. There was no need to feel hampered by the absence of whole opposition members.