In our age of social media-driven rage, people have no time to notice attempts that some deeply connected legislators make under the garb of amending the constitution or various laws, with insidious intent of achieving their partisan objectives.

The days specifically reserved for private initiatives for legislation in both houses of our parliament deserve close monitoring in this context.

Most reporters, however, prefer to look for stories, which have the potential of turning viral on social media. Legislation is a tedious business anyway. The procedural ropes make it doubly boring and reporters often fail to notice and appropriately report developments, loaded with possibly momentous consequences.

During a private members’ day of the previous National Assembly session, for example, a ruling party member tried to push hard for an amendment in the Constitution.

Through it, he wanted to extend the tenure of Supreme Court Judges for three more years. Currently an honorable judge of the apex court retires after completing 65 years of his or her age. The attempted amendment wanted to stretch it to 68 years.

No one cared noticing the said attempt. It mostly went under reported in mainstream media. But the said attempt eventually proved to have been relishing formidable backing from some powerful quarters of our ruling elite.

One found out through highly reliable sources that messenger, connected to powerful elite quarters, seriously approached the top leaders of the PML-N and the PPP to manage their support for the suggested amendment.

The idea appears to have been dropped, at least for the time being, because the required support from the opposition parties could not be ensured.

Another attempt to amend the Constitution was made Tuesday, on another day reserved for private initiatives in legislation. Ms Kishwar Zehra of the MQM took the lead to introduce a bill that desired to amend Article 239 of our Constitution.

On the face of it, the said article essentially deals with the process of amending the Constitution. Clause (4) of this article is quite significant, though, if you consider it in the context of our deeply polarized politics.

It clearly states: “A Bill to amend Constitution, which would have the effect of altering the limits of a Province shall not be presented to the President for assent, unless it has been passed by the Provincial Assembly of that Province by the votes of not less than two-thirds of its total membership.”

Simply put, the amendment suggested by the MQM legislators in the National Assembly Tuesday, in effect, wanted to dilute or undermine powers of a provincial assembly, when it comes to change or alter territories or the turf under its control.

Splitting Sindh in “urban” and “rural” is an old dream of the MQM. It wants more and more “autonomy”, at least for Karachi, the most populous and resourceful city of Pakistan. An overwhelming majority of the PTI legislators from the same city are also sold to the idea of denying absolute control of Karachi to the provincial government.

As if to fulfill the collective desire of the MQM and the PTI legislators, Farogh Nasim, the MQM-nominated law minister of the Imran government, had been frequently talking of invoking article 149 of our constitution.

He kept referring to this article with the noble and innocent-looking intent of empowering the federal government for dealing with the heaps of rubbish in Karachi and to ensure smooth supply of water to its residents.

The PPP government in Sindh felt alarmed by his talk. Even some diehard PPP-haters from the so-called “rural Sindh” firmly opposed the move and Nasim had to backtrack. Yet, under the garb of amending the constitution, the MQM had made another attempt Tuesday to clip the reach of the provincial government of Sindh.

Syed Naveed Qamar of the PPP instantly spotted “the rub.” He stood to oppose the introduction of the proposed amendment.

His remarks forced Ali Mohammad, the state minister, to proudly recall the “countrywide roots and appeal” of the PTI. He also tried hard to convince the opposition that the ruling party fully respects the federal structure, as set by the Constitution. It has no intent to alter it.

His speech did not help scuttling the feeling, however, that the MQM stays hooked to its old dream.

The rest of legislative business Tuesday miserably failed to engage reporters. Most of them were rather anxious to find out the names of ministers Prime Minister Imran Khan seems set to expel from his cabinet. A list of possible victims was being spread in whispers. I preferred to disregard it.

After giving 25 years to full time reporting, I have stopped chasing hard stories. The instincts of a reporter, however, keep telling me that Imran Khan seldom shares preferences set in his mind with people constantly hankering around him. He mostly surprises people with his decisions.

Late Monday evening, he had stunned most active reporters by announcing the appointment of Munir Akram as Pakistan’s Permanent Representative to the UN. Doing this, he appeared to have “snubbed” or “punished” Dr Maleeha Lodhi, who had been holding the said post for the past four years.

As if to demolish the feeling of being “punished” for “underperforming,” Dr Lodhi wrote tweets to send the message that she herself wanted to leave the said post and waited until the prime minister completed his recent, a week-long, visit to New York.

Via a Tweet, Shah Mehmood Qureshi, the foreign minister, has subtly endorsed her position.

Wagging tongues in Islamabad are claiming otherwise, though. Some of them strongly feel that even Shah Mehmood Qureshi may soon be out of the Foreign Office. Syed Fakhar Imam is fast surfacing as the favorite replacement in the said context.

A strong set of persons, savoring active access to powerful quarters, is yet not willing to believe that what had happened Monday evening was the “end of road” for highly talented” Dr Lodhi. They are rather waiting for her upward mobility, when it comes to foreign policy and security-connected issues of Pakistan.

All through May of this year, rumors had been rife in Islamabad that Dr Maleeha Lodhi could be appointed as the National Security Advisor. Soon it became obvious, however, that for some solid reasons the prime minister does not need an NSA.

But admiring the “technocrat” credentials of Dr Lodhi, her well-wishers began expecting that she might replace Shah Mehmood Qureshi, as an unelected advisor to the prime minister, if and when the need would arise.

Until my punching this column, Prime Minister had yet not formally acknowledged the talent and hard work of Dr Lodhi, via a tweet or any other mean, though. That compels me to trust wagging tongues, insistently talking about the presumed “displeasure” of Imran Khan while judging the performance of Dr Lodhi.