Former interior minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan on Tuesday criticised fellow PML-N politician Pervaiz Rahseed some more as the war of words, which had started over the weekend with the latter's provocation in a TV interview, refused to die down.

"Pervaiz Rasheed is continuously giving wrong statements and is a habitual sycophant," Nisar was quoted as saying by his spokesperson. "These are the only two specialties which make him PML-N's Aristotle."

Rasheed had claimed that Nisar never won an election without PML-N's banner — a statement Nisar completely disagreed with, as his spokesperson explained: "Chaudhry Nisar contested the provincial elections of 1985, 1988 and 1990 without PML-N's electoral symbol of lion, and by the grace of Allah, he won."

Nisar's spokesperson also said that the Dawn Leaks committee in its report accused Rasheed of continuously lying and held him responsible for hiding the facts.

He advised Rasheed that instead of making unnecessary public statements, he should urge his government to make the Dawn Leaks report public so that the nation could know the truth.

The two PML-N stalwarts have very rarely seen eye to eye but the recent round of their verbal spat began when Rasheed, over the weekend, called on Nisar to “leave the party”, since he had spoken against it in times of crisis.

He had also accused Nisar of having him “sacked in order to please someone”, a thinly veiled reference to the military establishment.

“If Chaudhry Nisar is a man of principles, he should leave the PML-N. I will speak to the party leadership about a decision in this regard,” Senator Pervaiz Rashid had told a private TV channel.