'Romantic, Idealist Or Whatever'.

Mian Raza Rabbani represents a vanishing breed of politicians, still trying to keep their profession connected with some 'principles.' Since 1993, Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) has consistently been getting him elected to the Senate from Sindh and for once in that capacity he became its Chairman as well.

Despite being a veteran loyalist of his party, Raza Rabbani often annoys its leaders by firmly taking a position that doesn't fit in the 'pragmatic compulsions' of a specific period. No wonder, for more than a decade he mostly looks like an alien to his own party, which seldom seeks his 'wisdom' before taking 'strategic decisions.' Yet we also have to admit that the same party shows a large heart by letting him say, that too in public, whatever comes to his mind at the spur of a moment. His tantrums, even if not taken seriously, are mostly tolerated for reflecting 'old-school romanticism.' And he threw another tantrum in the Senate Friday.

Like the lower house of our parliament, the upper house is also discussing the budgetary proposals these days. In the national assembly, 'general discussion' on these proposals keeps invoking yawns because 123 members of the largest party in that house, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), had submitted 'collective resignations,' yet to be formally accepted. But in the Senate, Senators representing the PTI continue to fiercely take on the same proposals.

Raza Rabbani's PPP is the second largest partner of the eleven-party unity or the coalition government that had replaced Imran Khan after pushing a vote of no-confidence against him in the national assembly. It was his turn to discuss the budgetary proposals Friday and the government must have expected that he would defend the same with convincing eloquence. Instead of 'delivering' the expected, Raza Rabbani directly addressed the Chairman Senate to build the case that for 'the past three to four years parliament had fast been losing its prestige and relevance.' The Senate looked doubly so, for neither the prime minister nor any of the senior ministers ever cared to attend its sittings. To prove his point, he specifically recalled the role of Ali Mohammad Khan, a junior minister of the Imran govern

As an old-school devotee to the notion of 'parliamentary supremacy,' Raza Rabbani had naively presumed that the government replacing Imran Khan would put in extra efforts for restoring the prestige and relevance of the elected parliament. But he could not see any...