- Aitzaz accuses govt of using delay tactics, says aggressive statements of govt team affected progress made by TORs committee
- Shah Mahmood Qureshi ask govt team to refrain from making provocative statements
A deadlock persisted on Tuesday as a meeting of the bipartisan parliamentary committee tasked with finalising the Terms of Reference (TORs) for a judicial probe into the Panama Leaks ended without any development, with the opposition team accusing the government side of using delaying tactics.
“The government team’s attitude has disappointed us,” Senator Aitzaz Ahsan said while speaking to the media. He said that aggressive statements issued by the government team had affected the progress made by the committee.
Aitzaz said the joint opposition had worked hard on the TORs in line with the letter of the Supreme Court, and asked the government to accept their 15 points and also to bring their own proposals. But, the PPP leader said, it appeared as if the government had become paralysed as its team was using delaying tactics. “Finance Minister Ishaq Dar will also be busy with preparations for announcement of the budget over the next three to four days,” he added.
Aitzaz also prayed for better health of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif who underwent an open-heart surgery in a London hospital on Tuesday.
PTI leader Shah Mahmood Qureshi, speaking on the occasion, urged the government team to refrain from making provocative statements. He told the media that the parliamentary committee suspended its Tuesday meeting on the request of the government side.
Jamaat-e-Islami leader Sahibzada Tariq said that the matter was moving ahead at a snail’s pace. “We will share our version with the nation after two weeks,” he added.
The parliamentary committee comprising six members each from the government and opposition held its first meeting on May 25. The committee was set up to come up with TORs for the proposed inquiry commission after Chief Justice of Pakistan Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali refused the federal government’s request to form a judicial commission to investigate the Panama Leaks, observing it would take years to complete the proceedings with the TORs formulated by the government.
In his written response to a letter by the federal government earlier this month, the chief justice raised a set of objections to the notification. Justice Jamali pointed out that the formation of a commission under the Pakistan Commission of Inquiry Act, 1956 would only “result in the constitution of a toothless commission, which would serve no useful purpose, except giving bad name to it”.
The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) government has been facing immense pressure from opposition parties since the massive leak of tax data from Panamanian Law firm Mosack Fonseca.
The leaked data revealed offshore business interests of several world leaders, their friends and members of their families. Names of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s children also appeared in the data, stirring up a political storm in Pakistan. Many other prominent Pakistani personalities have also been named in the revelations.