ISLAMABAD: The federal government has failed to maintain the quorum for the budget session despite the fact that one day of the National Assembly session costs the national exchequer Rs 25 million. Now the government has asked Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, who is still a strong candidate for the office of the prime minister, to help it complete quorum so that it can get the national budget for 2016-17 passed from the National Assembly smoothly, the sources say. The government was defeated six times on the issue of quorum by the opposition parties last week, as Chief Whip and Federal Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Sheikh Aftab Ahmad failed to make sure the presence of 86 members in the House. The presence of at least 86 members of the ruling party is a must to maintain the quorum. The ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) has 185 members in the House. On Saturday, the interior minister met the federal minister for parliamentary affairs in the House and expressed his anger because only 50 to 60 members were present in the House at that time and the opposition again pointed the quorum. The interior minister told the federal minister for parliamentary affairs to ensure attendance of most of the members in the House on Monday and maintain the quorum at all costs, the source said. Besides Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, Finance Minister Ishaq Dar is not in the country. Now the prime minister has asked the interior minister to look after the parliamentary affairs, especially during the budget session. The interior minister has become quite active now and he will seek a report on the attendance of the lawmakers on a daily basis, say the sources. The interior minister was regularly visiting the parliament during the budget session, but he was spending most of his time in his chamber, meeting various members of the National Assembly because a large number of ruling party lawmakers still believes that he will be the next prime minister of the country if an in-house change takes place, said the sources. The interior minister is not even on speaking terms with Finance Minister Ishaq Dar. He didn’t attend a cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif via video link from London that gave approval for the federal budget for the financial year 2016-17. He thinks he is the senior most member of the party and deserves due recognition. Recently, he met a very close aide of the prime minister at Prime Minister’s House and conveyed his concerns to him. He reportedly told the PM’s aide that he was even senior than Raja Zafarul Haq and that party must give respect to him instead of giving preference to his juniors to him. A tense calm prevails within the cabinet over interior minister’s working relationship with his fellows. Some circles believe that he leaked certain classified information about important party as well as government matters to the media.