By all standards I am an old-school journalist. Frantically looking for the hard news was considered the fundamental function of my profession, when I started learning the basics of it in the mid-1970s. We were also taught to forget about our own opinions while reporting the news, without using any adjectives lest you forget.

The relentless growth of social media had massively destroyed the original forms of classical journalism, however. After entering the retirement age, I am not able to even fathom the gravity of it and surely lack the capacity of adjusting to emerging forms of post-digital-revolution journalism. After admitting my limits, I am yet not able to disregard the reality that the Imran government had summoned another parliamentary session the previous Wednesday, primarily to seek approval for a huge set of changes in the budget it had prepared for the current fiscal year around six months ago. Such tweaking is popularly called the ‘mini-budget.’ But the government hates the said term and prefers to pretend as if it merely wants to introduce some usual adjustments in budget-related documents. It obviously lacks the courage to bravely admit that the ultimate regulator of the global economy, i.e. the IMF, had firmly asked for these ‘adjustments.’ And without delivering the same, Pakistan would not get $I billion for stabilising its economy from the same regulator.

 

Call them the mini-budget or whatever; the last-minute ‘adjustments’ in an already prepared and enforced budget are required to be approved by the directly elected house of our parliament, the National Assembly of Pakistan. They are prepared as the “Finance (amendments) Bill” and before putting them to the National Assembly the government is also required to get them approved by the Federal Cabinet.

 

Since last week, the Federal Cabinet had met twice on subsequent Tuesdays. Yet, the Finance (Amendment) Bill was not put there for approval. Meanwhile, all the three National Assembly sittings, since last week, could not proceed with any business due to the lack of quorum.

 

The delay in formally approaching the National Assembly, to seek approval for the planned ‘adjustments’ in current year’s budget, instantly compels an old-school journalist like me to imagine that Shaukat Tarin, the Finance Minister, has yet not been able to persuade most of his cabinet colleagues to own and endorse his tweaking efforts. But the government wants me to believe otherwise.

 

The upper house of our parliament, the Senate, does not vote on budgetary proposals. Yet the same proposals are conveyed to this house as well. Its finance committee diligently considers the proposed ‘adjustments’ and transmits its opinion, in writing, to the National Assembly.

 

Now, the Senate has also been in session since last week. It obviously was waiting to consider ‘adjustments,’ furnished through the mini-budget. But the Senate Chairman suddenly read the proroguing order at the end of its Wednesday’s sitting. This development again compelled the fossilized mind of an old-school journalist like me to imagine that the government was yet not ready to formally put the proposed ‘adjustments’ in the budget for parliamentary approval.

 

Still, a group of powerful ministers continue to firmly assert that the min-budget would soon be tabled in the National Assembly, during its current session, rain or shine. Being a humble reporter, I would prefer to believe them to preempt the possibility of being labeled as a rumormonger.

 

Since Tuesday’s meeting of the federal cabinet, the government continued to feel too good and great about another issue. It feels visibly proud for preparing a “first-ever National Security Policy,” as a written document. The Federal Cabinet had approved the same on Tuesday. Ordinary citizens of Pakistan, however, will only be able to know the details of the approved policy after around a week or so.

 

Senator Ms Sherry Rehman of Pakistan Peoples’ Party felt extremely annoyed with the government’s boasts regarding preparation of the “first-ever National Security Policy.” She forced the Chairman Senate to give her the floor and agitatedly kept wondering how the government could decide about issues related to National Security without taking the elected parliament on board. Before her, Senator Raza Rabbani had also been worryingly wondering about it.

 

Dr Wasim Shahzad, the Leader of the House in the Senate, felt rudely amused over Ms Rehman’s furious remarks. On his turn, he kept recalling that after preparing the said policy, the government had duly invited the opposition parliamentarians to a special meeting of the National Security Committee. But the opposition refused to attend the same by ‘flaunting the excuse’ that the Prime Minister had not announced the intent of attending the said meeting.

 

After repeatedly referring to the Opposition’s stance, Dr Wasim quickly switched to taunting mode. With a loudly sadistic grin, he mockingly told the opposition that all its leaders had eagerly been attending previous briefings on national security. Prime Minister Imran Khan had not attended any of them; mostly the military leaders conducted them and the opposition never objected to it.

 

After stating the obvious, Dr Wasim then kept rubbing in the point that the opposition prefers fawningly to listen to “the men in (military) uniform” and still keeps pretending to be “the ultimate defender and promoter of democracy and the notion of civilian supremacy etc.”

 

I am not a great admirer of Dr Shahzad Wasim. That will not stop me, though, from reporting that although sounding rude and crude, the Leader of the House in the Senate was certainly rubbing in a solid point.

 

From day one of taking charge of the Prime Minister’s Office, Imran Khan had constantly been keeping himself away from the briefings held for parliamentarians, either by the military or the ministers. He hates to share any space with opposition leaders, perceived as “corrupt to the core” by him. But his absence from high-profile briefings on national security affairs, primarily conducted by the military elite, never motivated the opposition to announce boycotting the same.

 

The cherry picking approach, adopted by the opposition for attending briefings on national security affairs, surely deserved mocking Dr Shahzad Wasim continued to employ, pretty ruthlessly throughout Wednesday’s sitting of the Senate.