code: def read_parfile(parfile):
      
      assert os.path.exists(parfile), "Pst.parrep(): parfile not found: " +\
                                      str(parfile)
      f = open(parfile, 'r')
      header = f.readline()
      par_df = pd.read_csv(f, header=None,
                               names=["parnme", "parval1", "scale", "offset"],
                               sep="\s+")
      par_df.index = par_df.parnme
      return par_df
docs: load a pest-compatible .par file into a pandas.DataFrame
  
      Parameters
      ----------
      parfile : str
          pest parameter file name
  
      Returns
      -------
      pandas.DataFrame : pandas.DataFrame