Worried about post-budget political scene.

Enviably employing all possible tricks of playing good-cop-bad-cop, the PTI government finally got its budgetary proposals passed without much ado Monday afternoon. Doing this, it also showed that a significant number of MNAs, 160 out of a house of 342, continues to fervently support it. The combined opposition, on the contrary, could only manage the presence of 119 members.

In fear-instilling times of an ongoing pandemic, both the sides recklessly violated the rules of social distancing and surely exposed their loyalists to the vagaries of a potentially deadly but sneaky virus. Such risk taking was not justified for the sake of appearances only.

Still the PTI could conveniently peddle the argument that the opposition it has been dealing with, 'often violates agreements reached after lengthy negotiations.' With the advent of the budget session, both the sides had agreed that appreciating the limits, enforced by a widely spreading pandemic, the national assembly should smartly skip some clearly defined rules and long-established parliamentary traditions.

Both sides honestly fulfilled the promise of bringing the token-looking number of their members to the house. Speeches stayed mostly focused on budgetary proposals. With apparently a very large heart, the number strong opposition also made history of sorts by abandoning its right of blocking allocations for various ministries and government departments, by forcefully demanding head counts on a plethora of cut motions moved by it.

The said arrangement even pleased the prime minister. Imran Khan hates attending the national assembly sittings. He strongly believes that swayed by the blind hatred against his person, the opposition does not want to listen his speech, with due deference and attention an elected prime minister deserves. The opposition rather prefers to behave like a bunch of rowdy kids, which goes wild and desperately attempts to block the flow of his thoughts with ceaseless heckling.

The 'good behavior' of the opposition, since the start of the budget session, eventually persuaded him to have second thoughts. He surprised many by walking in the house last week and taking the mic to deliver a 70-plus-minute speech that was heard with absolute attention.

The said event motivated many of parliamentary reporters to presume that our viciously divided politicians were finally developing the habit of live and let live. From now on, the government and the opposition would be playing their...