Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Saturday told his government’s allied parties that his children were ready to face any commission that is formulated to probe Panama Papers’ revelations, but he would not let politics be played under the garb of eliminating corruption.
The prime minister on Saturday chaired a meeting with the coalition parties to discuss the future political discourse over the Panama Leaks scandal.
Nawaz took the coalition leaders into confidence and discussed the Terms of Reference (ToR) submitted by the opposition that lay down conditions for a probe on allegations on the PM. It was decided during the meeting that the government will meet the opposition at the earliest.
“The present government has shown commitment to eradicate corruption. We want to bring the coalition and opposition parties on one page,” the prime minister said.
During the meeting, Federal Law Minister Zahid Hamid briefed the participants over the opposition’s ToR, sources said.
According to sources, the meeting called at the PM house, was attended by Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (Fazl) chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman, National Party of Pakistan chief Hasil Bizenjo and Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party chief Mehmood Achakzai, among other federal ministers.
Speaking to the media after the meeting ended, Fazlur Rehman said the government has formally received the ToR, however it has reservations over it.
“The ToRs submitted by the opposition violate the constitution,” he said. He added that the opposition makes demands but then does not stand by them. “We wrote a letter to the Chief Justice requesting him to probe the allegations by the Panama Papers because the opposition asked us to,” he said.
The meeting unanimously decided that a letter would be written to Khursheed Shah, the opposition leader in National Assembly, in response to his communiqué in the coming week.
Shah wrote a letter to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Thursday, asking the government to hold a dialogue with opposition parties over the ToRs for the inquiry commission investigating the Panama leaks.
Earlier, a high-level meeting at the Prime Minister House rejected the ToR presented by the opposition.
Leaders at the meeting claimed that the document unveiled by the opposition were not ToR, but a parallel legal system that could not be accepted for any inquiry under relevant laws.
The government argued that the opposition’s TORs were based on ill-intentions aimed at entangling Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.
The government had also accused the opposition of mistrusting the legal system and the Supreme Court of Pakistan.
Opposition divided over PM resignation:
Opposition parties are divided on whether they should ask the prime minister to step down until the judicial inquiry is concluded.
The ToRs agreed upon by the opposition do not mention any point about the resignation of the prime minister.
According to the ToRs, the opposition has agreed to press the government for a special law — the “PANAMA PAPERS (INQUIRY AND TRIAL) ACT, 2016” — to be passed to facilitate the investigation into the assets, foreign and domestic, of the prime minister and all other Pakistanis named in the Panama Papers.
The joint opposition would call for the constitution of a special judicial commission headed by the Chief Justice of Pakistan and comprising of two other Supreme Court judges to be nominated by the Chief Justice.