OKAY, can we have some humility inside the house please? Before we enter the unavoidable debate about how some of them are more favoured by the gods than others let’s remind ourselves that this is an assembly of those who have sinned and erred and blundered, until they were cleared by the people on July 25 last to be privileged and empowered citizens of Imran Khan’s new Pakistan. Each one of them has a history that should be enough to protect them against any urge to destroy their colleagues on moral grounds.

Those who belong to the PTI are in parliament and government to rule the country. The opposition parties are in the house for the sake of democracy. Whatever his reasons, it is great to see the likes of Shahbaz Sharif and Ahsan Iqbal and Khawaja Asif in the first row of lawmakers. The PML-N has plenty of reasons to be suspicious of the system and it will surely have lots of opportunities to challenge the ways the Imran Khan setup adopts as it launches its reform-Pakistan project — keeping the Nawaz Sharif theme alive is most obviously the main N-League concern. For the time being, it is most appropriate for the party under Shahbaz Sahib’s command to re-establish its credentials as an outfit that is mature enough to play a worthy opposition.

The nemesis is there for everyone to acknowledge, if with a certain degree of remorse and dread. For long years, the PML-N has been rightly accused of using parliament, at best, as a forum of empty nodding heads whereas the executive outside of it exercised unbridled powers to forward government schemes. Shahbaz Sahib in particular stood as the true perpetrator of this model. He was the epitome of the administrator who did not believe he needed guidance from those elected by popular vote. His word was law but now he has to be quite dependent on any allies he can find inside parliament to somehow get his wise elder brother by his side. This is an absolute must for his survival and that of his party.

Shahbaz must also demonstrate to his opponent that, unlike them in many cases, he had the capability to keep his party united under pressure. After the plea strikes have been exchanged, after Ayaz Sadiq has paid Shireen Mazari backhanded compliments over her talent to oppose vehemently, the search for a forward bloc may, one day, prove inevitable. So much has been said about how the PTI had to ultimately fall back upon support from the inexplicably wily Asif Zardari. This is a somewhat rushed course of thought when, in theory, the PTI has so many members in the PML-N ranks to choose from should it feel the need to consolidate its numbers at any stage.

The litmus test will be when parliamentarians sit down to discuss the issues raised by Sardar Akhtar Mengal on Wednesday.

The PTI opened its arms to just anyone who wanted to enter its fold from its opponents’ camp. It is rather premature to think that the offer stands closed now. Technically, it can get the support of any group in the National Assembly but a breakaway faction of the N-League would be extremely fortuitous given the critical balance between the PML-N and PTI in Punjab. The weight on its side of a few MNAs in addition to those who won on its symbol would add greatly to the PTI’s confidence, going in for a task that could turn out to be truly daunting.

These are things for the future but things that all these solemn-appearing souls in the house are familiar with. It is these details which make them equal, the choice of their own paths dictated by their own preferences at any given time. The slips show all the more glaringly when the respectable cover of parliament is used to hide a not-so-good performance on other fronts. It is not at all in the PPP’s favour when it tries, rather vainly, to claim that it has been most proficient in the assembly, especially in Sindh where it has been in power for long. It is lame because it is an obvious attempt to counter allegations about the absence of a sufficient number of development schemes undertaken by the PPP-led governments in recent years.

Parliament is a there to perform specific functions. One of its main features is that it provides the seal of some kind of agreement if not outright consensus to the proceedings carried out on a grand scale in the name of the people. At the same time, even to those who chant ‘parliament is supreme’ slogan at the top of their voices, the institution doesn’t put a bar on those able and willing to work in other spheres and fields for the fulfilment of common desires and objectives. The young Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari would do well to remember that over and above what his famously wise father teaches him.

The question of a still raw and fresh BBZ coming out of the shadows of his elders is one worth keeping track of not just as an intra-PPP subject but also as a sign of potentially how ready and free this new parliament is to put to rest some, if not all, the ghosts from our not-so-envious past. The litmus test will ultimately be when parliamentarians, new and old, clear winners and those who face allegations of rigging, sit down to discuss the issues raised by Sardar Akhtar Mengal in his first speech in the National Assembly on Wednesday.

This parliament will be as open to the taunts of being populated by useless souls as were the previous ones unless it succeeds in winning its right to discuss all issues confronting the country. Parliament must not be constrained for the dreamy-eyed lot out there declaring this as a fresh start for this beloved country of ours.

The writer is Dawn’s resident editor in Lahore.

Published in Dawn, August 17th, 2018