Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar on Saturday denied that the federal government and judiciary are at odds with each other days after former PML-N leader Nehal Hashmi's threats against "those investigating" Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's family.

Hours after a video surfaced of Hashmi's outburst apparently referring to a Supreme Court-sanctioned probe into the Sharif family's business dealings, the PML-N suspended his party membership and he resigned from the Senate.

Chief Justice of Pakistan Mian Saqib Nisar also took suo motu notice of Hashmi's remarks and summoned him to court on Thursday where he was issued a show-cause notice for maligning the judiciary after a particularly fiery exchange between the bench and the attorney general during which Justice Sheikh Azmat likened the government to a Sicilian mafia.

Nisar claimed that the depiction of differences in opinion as a clash and the use of such incidents for political point-scoring reflect a mindset that seeks instability in the country.

He added that the same people were attempting to make a mountain out of a molehill despite the government's timely disciplinary action against the party worker in question.

The interior minister was of the opinion that today's defenders of the judiciary had forgotten how the same institutions were mocked during their own tenures, and how judicial orders were defied by top-level officials.