As the country moves from one crisis to another, its situation keeps getting grimmer. While the prime minister had not yet recovered from the trauma of judicial indictment in the Panama Papers case, the much-awaited inquiry report in the Dawn Leaks has dealt him another severe blow. Amid Pakistan’s roller coaster rides through perpetual bad weather, the symbol of the country’s strength — the Parliament — supposed to the reservoir of all power-is neither heard of nor approached regarding these crises. The weaknesses of the prime minister and his flagging government, notwithstanding, his most unpardonable crime has been his utter disregard of a precedent set by President Asif Ali Zardari. The latter’s government had strengthened parliamentary democracy brick-by-brick over its tenure of five years. In his four years in office, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has dealt blow after blow to make the institution practically infructuous. Since quite some time no issue of national, security, or geo-strategic importance has been taken up on the Parliament’s floor — be it appointment of former Army Chief General Raheel Sharif as head of what so far seems to be a phantom sectarian army, the scathing Supreme Court verdict in the Panama Papers case, or the so-called security leak associated with Dawn newspaper. There could not be a better censure of the PM and his ministers for their contempt of the Parliament and the low priority it has received from them than Senate Chairman Mian Raza Rabbani’s protest from last month. He decided to quit from Senate chairmanship since the slumbering PML-N leadership could not be awakened from its contemptuous inertia despite Mr Rabbani’s repeated warnings and Opposition parties’ protestations. Indeed, the PML-N government’s approach towards the Parliament seems to be a manifestation of a suicidal mindset. Despite the fact that it was the Parliament that saved the government time and again — standing up like a rock to thwart pressure built by the PTI dharnas that almost dislodged the government in 2014 — instead of strengthening it as the source and arbiter of all power, the government adopted a policy of yielding more space to the extra-constitutional forces and their Trojan horses who end up taking advantage of it. The PM’s lack of interest in the Parliament is manifested in the gross disrespect shown to the institution by his ministers. The latter’s pathological abhorrence to attending the Parliament’s proceedings is like re-arranging the deck chairs for a musical when Titanic is about to sink. No doubt the PPP-P government had not performed well on account of various factors beyond its control including highest ever international oil prices and a parallel government through the so-called judicial activism of a paranoid chief justice backed by Mr Sharif and his PML-N. Credit must still be given to it for its record of legislations including the landmark 18th Amendment to the Constitution. And that’s not all. PPP-P’s prime ministers and ministers upheld the importance of the Parliament by their admirable attendance record. Last but not the least, PPP-P government created history by becoming the first elected government to survive its five-year tenure and pass the baton on to the next elected government. Mr Sharif’s government’s shady handling of the Dawn Leaks report forced the Army, through the ISPR, to come out strongly in rejection of the report by stating “Notification on Dawn Leak is incomplete and not inline with recommendations by the Inquiry Board. Notification is rejected.” Then, matters got confounded by the quixotic interior minister’s statement on the notification issued from the Prime Minister’s Office. Confusion being the style of PML-N’s governance and most of its ministers at loggerheads with one another or at daggers drawn with civil bureaucrats, it gives the impression that a stage is being set for the curtains to be dawn. The PM had to sack his Special Assistant for Foreign Office-Syed Tariq Fatmi- and his Principal Information Officer — Rao Tehsin — while Information Minister Pervez Rasheed had already relieved of his duties. The resignation of Federal Minister for Provincial Co-ordination Riaz Pirzada in protest against alleged high corruption of Prime Minister’s Principal Secretary does not seem to have happened in isolation. Devil-may-take-care is the attitude of the rulers towards matters of vital importance. How serious is it in conduct of a pragmatic foreign policy is reflected in the fact that it doesn’t have a foreign minister as it nears the end of fourth year of its tenure. Back channels are no doubt considered pliable in certain circumstances but they have to be complementary to formal conduct of foreign policy. Here, we have an Indian business tycoon Sajjan Jindal clandestinely visiting Pakistan in his private jet, having hi-tea with the PM ensconced in his cool Murree rendezvous. Media and bazaars are rife with gossip that Jindal came to negotiate reprieve for Indian spy Kulbushan Jadhav or to strike a back-door deal for purchase of Pakistan Steel Mills. That being said, more fireworks maybe expected. It is regretted that the PM and his party, by their questionable competence and conduct, are responsible for yielding more space by the day to extra-constitutional forces waiting in the wings to fill in the vacuum caused by the PML-N government. If God forbid, something unforeseen happens — the reader should know who to blame it for. The writer is the former High Commissioner for Pakistan to UK and a veteran journalist