Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: Although the parliamentary committee on the terms of reference to investigate the Panama leaks has already completed its time frame ,but now a divide within the opposition has made this committee’s future uncertain and right now this committee is totally dysfunctional, sources say.

Opposition sources say that out of six opposition parties in the parliamentary committee on TOR,s ,two are not ready to leave it and they wanted the opposition to finalise the TORs and for this the parliament was the best forum.

The Pakistan Peoples Party, the Tehreek e Insaf, the Muslim League-Q and the Jamaat e Islami have made up their mind to leave the parliamentary committee but the Awami National Party and the MQM are not in favour of this, sources say.

“Government contacts and meetings worked so the MQM and the ANP changed their minds and they are speaking totally different to what they committed with us”,one of the PPP leaders said.

“We want to be a part of the parliamentary committee as it was the best forum. Road politics was not the best choice at this moment, the MQM and the ANP opined,while the Jamaat-e-Islami and the Muslim League-Q said that they would go with the PPP and the PTI as the parliamentary committee’s eight meetings were not fruitful,.sources said.

The ANP leader and Central Information Secretary Zahid Khan and the parliamentary committee member Ilyas Bilore told the media that “The Peoples Party and the PTI understand that they are only an opposition so they do not bother to take us into confidence and we are free to make our decision.

The PPP, the ANF and the PTI are also responsible for not finalising the TORs. The PML-N ,the PPP and the PTI were never serious on the issue of TORs. “If we have to eliminate corruption then the TORs must be formed”, said Ilyas Bilore.

MQM leader Mian Ateeq was of the view that big parties did not want to make a law against corruption as corrupt people were present in the big parties. Accountability should be across the board and not a choosy one. If mega corruption cases are decided then many people sitting in the parliament would be disqualified, he said.

“Yes its true that the parliamentary committee on the future of the terms of reference is in the dark now as the opposition does not want to resolve the issue but has made the committee dysfunctional. They want to go to the roads but the government still wanted to engage them for purposeful talks”, said State Minister Muhammad Zubair.