The Senate was prorogued sine die within a couple of hours after the natural disaster while the National Assembly had to continue its proceedings till Tuesday last.
The reason for its continuous sittings was to meet mandatory requirement of 130 sittings in a parliament year, ending on November 15. The focus of its business was the post-earthquake situation. No other business, except for some calling attention notices, was taken up during its over three-week session.
It goes without saying that there is at the moment an undeclared but shaky 'cease-fire' between the government and the combined opposition, both sides engaged in relief activities.
The quake struck Pakistan at a time when the two major opposition alliances ie the Alliance for Restoration of Democracy and the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal were discussing joining of hands for a countrywide political struggle.
However, after a pause of some four weeks, opposition parties are preparing to revive contacts for a collective rendezvous immediately after Eid.
"The opposition had to shift focus from politics to rescue and relief, however, this does not mean, we have forgotten our main objective of an across the country movement for restoration of democracy," said Shah Mehmood Qureshi of the Pakistan People's Party Parliamentarians.
He said that the opposition in no way wanted to score points when the nation was in grief and pain. Therefore, he added, they shelved their future plans for the time being. "We will take stock of the government performance after the tragedy occurred prior to unfolding our future strategy. The rulers have failed to deliver even at this critical juncture," he alleged.
The lawmaker pointed out that the opposition, which avoided criticising the government vis-à-vis the quake-related operations, plans to raise the issue on the floor of the Senate with full force, when it meets on November 11. This will be its first session after the natural disaster.
In reply to a question, he maintained that the opposition had so many serious issues to put the government on the defensive: there are the gross mishandling of the post-quake situation, Kashmir policy, PTCL deal, and a host of other matters.