National Assembly Speaker Sardar Ayaz Sadiq has said that names for the committee to draft the Terms of Reference (TORs) for the Panama Leaks probe have not been finalised yet.
He was speaking to media outside the house of former prime minister Yusuf Raza Gilani where he had arrived to congratulate him over the release of his son from captivity after three years.
Answering a question regarding the names of the opposition and the government members in the committee, he said that he has received the names from the opposition members in writing, but the government has communicated the names of their members verbally.
“The names of the government members will be sent by tomorrow,” he added. The speaker said that he has consulted with Yousaf Raza Gillani over the issue as no party, be it from the government or the opposition can be neglected or left out of the process.
“I am only a facilitator in the formation of the committee on TORs and won’t be its part,” he clarified.
He said that Gilani was a senior politician and he sought advice from him to run the affairs of the assembly.
Sadiq said he did not know if there will be any political meetings of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in London or whether the visit is just for medical purposes.
He also refused to say whether the visit was being personally funded by the PM and said that Information Minister Parvaiz Rashid is more suited to answer this question.
The National Assembly speaker is the third top government official to visit Yusuf Raza Gilani’s home to congratulate him on the return of his home.
A ruling party MNA said on condition of anonymity that the ruling party is using the occasion to try to woo the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) to its point of view. He said a soft PPP will balance out the aggressive Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and Jamaat-e-Islami.
“Since ANP and MQM are expected to remain manageable, the govt can hugely benefit from a PPP that does not mimic PTI’s hostility,” he said.
