Someone said it was like having a wedding in the family after a long, long wait. That settled it then. There had to be, ultimately, that ‘small’ incident to betray the long-brewing tensions within the gathering. Given how occupied and intense Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif appeared over the length of the visit by President Xi Jinping there will now be people out there claiming they had known all along that it would — most definitely — be him.

The hectic two-day trip by the Chinese president was like a fast train journey. It included more than the human mind could register.

There were just too many figures thrown up by too many grooms exchanging vows at a ceremony watched over by President Xi and Prime Minister Sharif. The celebrations are continuing and the ministers are set to go on flashing the victory signs for some time to come.

Read: Pakistan was with us when China stood isolated: Xi Jinping

On investment evidence they are fully within their rights to mark this happy occasion with fireworks, for they had for long been advocating that the best Pakistan could do — in the words of a commentator — was to tail its own small, floundering boat into the huge, smooth-sailing Chinese enterprise.

That has been done and as per tradition, the Pakistani handover is complete. The sharing is not limited to matters of bilateral trade, the signs are that, as this country had done in its relationship with other powers in the past, we are not at all embarrassed at taking our own little disputes to our benefactors, if not for resolution for the time being then to embarrass our local rivals.

The prime minister’s remark, in which he reportedly accused PTI chief Imran Khan of holding up the visit of the Chinese president by its prolonged sit-in in Islamabad, was self-destructive.

Having secured pledges of a multibillion-dollar investment from China over the next decade and a half, the PML-N can genuinely hope that this is just too big a development and not even the most sceptical souls can withhold credit from it for its achievement this time round.

Also read: PM’s remarks caught Imran unawares

Even then the prime minister’s remark, in which he reportedly accused Mr Imran Khan of holding up the visit of the Chinese president by its prolonged sit-in in Islamabad, was self-destructive.

This was a follow-up to how some members of the Sharif cabinet have been making fun of the politics of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf — making people wonder if it is alright to blame front men such as information minister Pervaiz Rashid for getting his bash-Imran tenor so very wrong.

Mr Khan’s response to the prime ministerial taunt was rather submerged in the loud applause generated by the prospects of an ‘economic turnaround’ Pakistan hopes to undergo in partnership with — some spoilsport say under decree from — China.

The echoes of what the PTI leader said in reply to Mr Sharif are going to be heard for some time to come, without fear of causing any damage to the PTI and in fact furthering the latter’s cause.

The prime minister was obviously a happy man as he listened to the speech by the Chinese leader in parliament on Tuesday.

This was the grand finale to the billion-dollar tour the entire nation was celebrating, re-acknowledging the undoubtedly great Chinese role just when this country was to be rescued one more time. Soon, the visitors were to be driven in a buggy to the presidency, on way to flying out of Pakistan.

Like it happens to the organisers sometimes, perhaps it was the relief of a successful winding up of the event that left the prime minister a little too relaxed, and made him acknowledge Imran Khan in a way that can only reconfirm the governmental preoccupation with the PTI chief these days.

That was not needed — unless the desire was to continue with the tradition of having ‘outside’ intervention by powerful mentors to disengage the feuding politicians here. Even more seriously, the impression conveyed was that no one from either the PML-N or PTI was too eager on countering the negative signal that the exchange attributed to Mian Nawaz Sharif and Mr Imran Khan inside parliament after President Xi’s speech.

It was as if those who stood by the prime minister’s side thought that their leader was justified in using his moment of triumph to embarrass his chief, if not the only, rival in Pakistani politics.

The PML-N couldn’t have got it more wrong.

This was their prime minister’s moment to enhance his stature and display an ability, and desire, to rise above petty personal biases. He squandered the opportunity, instead providing reason for some point-scoring to the sections of Pakistanis who claim that the government does what it does in relation to what the PTI demands at a particular moment.

By contrast, the PML-N — the person of prime minister to be more precise — appeared all too willing to share the stage with former president Asif Ali Zardari, who is not considered much of a threat to the Sharif dominance of Pakistani politics. The image, unfortunately, signified the persistence of an order where the necessity and urge for practising less acrimonious politics is limited to a politician’s relationship with less threatening opponents, and where it does not transcend the critical barrier that separates one main power contender from another.

If there has to be a change in attitudes the powerful must learn to resist the urge to humiliate and embarrass political rivals at forums that are there to aid a coming together of various voices and views for a shared elaboration of common goals. Parliament is most vocally hailed by Pakistani politicians as the forum which helps them unite. Parliament is not the place used for settling scores in the presence of foreign guests looking for a concerted and coordinated push for development from their hosts.

The writer is a Dawn’s resident editor in Lahore.

Published in Dawn, April 24th, 2015

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