In Python what is the significance of parentheses, in isolation, surrounding a module name?

Question

In this code what is the purpose of the statements (fix_imports) and (app)?

This is the whole file:

from ferris import fix_imports
(fix_imports)

# Import the application
from ferris.core import settings
settings.load_settings()

import ferris
import ferris.app
import ferris.deferred_app
import ferris.routes
import app.routes
import app.listeners
(app)

main_app = ferris.app.app  # Main application
deferred_app = ferris.deferred_app.app  # Deferred application

appstats_settings = settings.get('appstats', {})

if (appstats_settings.get('enabled', False) and ferris.app.debug) or appstats_settings.get('enabled_live', True):
    from google.appengine.ext.appstats import recording
    main_app = recording.appstats_wsgi_middleware(main_app)

Answer 1

It could be that it was imported for side-effects.

Referencing the name like that may have been put in to prevent lint tools such as pylint or IDEs such as pycharm from generating warnings about unused imports.