Prestigious and formidable Senate.

The Senate, no doubt, is too formidable and prestigious a forum if you consider the Constitution of Pakistan, seriously, and genuinely want it to look 'functioning,' in letter and spirit.

All our federating units are equally represented in this house and no law, even if passed by the national assembly with a thumping majority, can be enforced unless approved by the Senate as well.

Since the advent of the Imran government in August 2018, however, the upper house of our parliament increasingly began losing its worth and relevance. PTI does not have sufficient senators; forget the majority, in this house. Even its allies do not furnish comfort-ensuring numbers. The combined strength of the opposition parties remains overwhelming there and the PTI had failed, miserably, to find the means to effectively dealing with it.

Instead of developing some working understanding with its opponents in the Senate, the Imran government preferred to disregard the existence of Senate with arrogant-looking contempt. This house was not summoned to meet for more than three months. Bypassing the Senate, the government rather tried to introduce and enforce 'new' laws through Ordinances, notified from the President's Office.

This strategy was inherently faulty. It could not deliver, even in a dysfunctional 'parliamentary democracy,' a hybrid version of which we are enduring in Pakistan these days. Our Constitution clearly enjoins that during a parliamentary year, the Senate must hold at least 110 sittings and, so far, the Senate had only met for less than 70 days. Lest you forget, by March 12, 2020, the Senate will complete its parliamentary year

Since the beginning of January 2020, therefore, the Senate continues to meet non-stop, simply to fulfil the requirement of meeting 'for at least 110 days.' This attempt reminds you of lazy school kids tying hard to catching up, too close to end of their term.

The government has not conceived any legislative business for the Senate. Monday was reserved for private initiatives in legislation, anyway. But at the outset of sitting, Raja Zafarul-Haq, the opposition leader, took the floor to enforce whining speeches over the wheat-shortage, which appears to have 'suddenly' hit the country like an earthquake.

The chest-beating senators from the opposition benches hardly had anything substantive to explain the real causes of wheat shortage. They simply indulged in point scoring and blame passing.

Senator Pervez Rashid of the PML-N...