The joint session of parliament today will serve as a litmus test for the loyalty of PTI’s allies in the centre and Punjab, besides pronouncing judgment on whether or not PTI still has the mandate to govern. It has assumed special importance in light of last week’s faux pas when the call for the joint sitting had to be revoked only hours later because it turned out at the very last minute that coalition partners did not want to play ball. Yet it has also surfaced since then that all the main allies really wanted was their time in the sun, which they felt the ruling party didn’t give them enough of. So, once their meeting with the PM himself graced the headlines, in addition to the concessions they would have extracted, of course, they duly returned to the fold and PTI felt confident enough to test the waters once again with today’s joint sitting. The opposition will no doubt count on lingering differences to come to the fore during the vote. Indeed, if there is still some trouble beneath the surface, and it does come out during the session, then the government will have more than just an egg on its face and the combined opposition will have plenty to celebrate. But no doubt the opposition realises that playing politics of confrontation of this kind is like juggling a double-edged sword. For, if the government gets its way much will be forgotten about the ruling party’s recent troubles with its friends and it will be the opposition that will be bleeding so close to the election. The fact remains, though, that the said electoral reform bill has few real backers except for PTI; even within the ruling coalition. So even a victory for the government in today’s vote will not close the book on this particular problem and it is very likely, in that case, to surface in the Supreme Court very soon. It doesn’t help the government at all that ECP has also added fuel to the fire by expressing a lot of reservations about the use of Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs). Unfortunately, this backdrop has reduced today’s vote to little more than a show of strength. And the side that flexes its muscles better, wins. *