ISLAMABAD: The joint opposition on Monday presented six-point terms of reference (ToRs) for special legislation to investigate the revelations made by the Panama Papers.
According to the proposals put forward by the opposition, the close relatives like spouse, children and parents of a person whose name has appeared in the Panama leaks must also be investigated.
The second point calls for seeking of power of attorney from a person as well as his family whose name has appeared in the Panama Papers, empowering the investigators to have access to their offshore bank accounts since no investigation is possible in another country without appropriate power of attorney.
The third point relates to the burden of proof. According to the international law, an accused who owns some property is bound to prove that the money used to buy that property was earned through fair and legal means.
The fourth point calls for revealing the identity of a person from whom property worth billions has been purchased so that it could be ascertained that the seller of the property is not involved in drug trafficking or terror financing.
The fifth point calls for indiscriminate application of the law enacted to investigate the scandal on all those whose names have appeared in the Panama Papers.
The sixth point calls for starting the inquiry process from the prime minister and his family.
Speaking to the media after the opposition parties’ meeting, Senator Aitzaz Ahsan of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) said the opposition wanted to give time to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to clear his name by going through the accountability process. He said the government was exerting pressure on the media to stop it from covering the activities of the joint opposition. He said that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s son Hussain Nawaz confessed that his family owned four apartments in London. He said this confession was an attempt on part of the Sharif family to offset the impact of the Panama leaks, which came to the surface a few days after Hussain Nawaz’s confessions.
Later, Ahsan said, the prime minister stated in his address to the nation that he would present himself and his family for accountability. The government also wrote a letter to the Supreme Court chief justice to set up a judicial commission to investigate the Panama leaks. He said the opposition drafted the ToRs and later a parliamentary committee was set up to decide the ToRs for an investigation into the Panama leaks.
“Now it is clear that the government wants to make a committee like the Hamood-ur-Rehman Commission or the committee that probed the killing of Osama Bin Laden in the past, to keep the status quo and continue to enjoy the power,” he added.
He said the opposition took the stance that it was a financial crime, through which the blood of the national economy was sucked. The PPP senator said the country needed a new law to prevent money laundering. “We have no personal enmity with anyone. It is important that all people named by the Panama Papers submit affidavit that they were never involved in money laundering,” he said.
The opposition leader said the Panama leaks investigation could help the Pakistani nation get its looted money back and do indiscriminate accountability, which should begin from prime minister and his family.