Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: The members of a parliamentary committee – mandated to finalise the Terms of Reference (ToRs) for a proposed judicial commission, which will investigate the murky deals unearthed by the Panama leaks – are showing a lack of motivation and are skeptical about reaching a consensus on the ToRs.

“The committee members are lethargic and bored. The initial optimism and excitement have faded away. I am not very positive about all this,” a senior member of the committee told Daily Times. Contrary to the rhetoric of Imran Khan and others, he said, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his family would hardly face any threat to their future politics.

The committee member quoted Barrister Aitzaz Ahsan as telling the committee members that he was attending the meetings just to fulfill the formality. He repeatedly told his colleagues that the parliamentary committee might not be able to prepare consensus ToRs.

Barrister Ahsan told journalists after the second meeting of the committee last month that he was attending the meetings with an open mind. However, he changed his tone and tenor in subsequent meetings and said the government was trying to wiggle out of the situation. The committee held its sixth meeting on Tuesday that remained inconclusive on the issue of addition or deletion of prime minister’s name from the ToRs. The opposition wanted the prime minister’s name to be included, if not as prime minister then as father of those who established offshore companies through unknown financial sources.

The committee members representing the government categorically rejected mentioning prime minister’s name in the ToRs in any context. They stuck to their stance on Tuesday, leaving the other side showing frustration in the post-meeting media talk.

The opposition, however, accepted the government’s proposal to expand the scope of the investigation by the proposed judicial commission. The sources said the two sides agreed that the proposed commission would also investigate bank loan defaulters and people involved in tax evasion and mega corruption scandals.

The opposition insisted that prime minister’s name must be included in the ToRs. It demanded that the investigation into the charges against him and his family should be completed within first three months. They proposed that rest of the cases might be investigated within six months.

Requesting anonymity, another committee member said both sides were banging their heads against each other. He said that both sides knew they were heading towards an abyss. “The opposition knows, so does the government, that there would be street agitation by the PTI. And, therefore, the government is buying maximum time to slow down the entire process. It is hoping the so-called joint opposition would disintegrate on the issue of street agitation.”

Meanwhile, the Pakistan People’s Party sources said Asif Ali Zardari might ask Barrister Ahsan to withdraw from the committee. The veteran PPP leader is spearheading the opposition side in the committee, which doesn’t have any chairman given the nature of the controversy it has to deal with. Sources said that Mr Zardari was wary of the outcome so far. While Mr Zardari had already realised the committee proceedings were an exercise in futility, he wanted ‘a hawk’ from his party to lead the opposition so that the PPP gets maximum political advantage, instead of the PTI.