Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: The proceedings of the parliamentary committee constituted to draft terms of reference (ToRs) to investigate Panama leaks have been marred by mistrust between government and the opposition sides.

Sources close to the committee told Daily Times that both the government and opposition have made hardly any breakthrough so far. “The committee has met twice and there is hardly any breakthrough so far,” sources said.

It has been learnt that both government and the opposition are not ready to trust each other. Sources said the government is not ready to show any flexibility on opposition’s demand to start investigation from Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. While, the opposition parties are also adamant that the inquiry must start from prime minister and his family.

It has been learnt that the government has inducted its two ministers, Khawaja Asif and Khawaja Saad Rafiq, in the committee who behave very aggressive during the meetings. “Both Khawaja Asif and Khawaja Saad Rafiq are giving tough time to the opposite in the committee,” sources said. Both the federal ministers are resisting opposition’s move to start inquiry from the prime minister and his family, they added. “They have argued that parliament should not name prime minister in its ToRs. The judicial commission should decide on it,” the sources maintained.

Sources said that the parliamentary committee is likely to face a deadlock very soon as both the sides are stuck to their positions.

During the second sitting of the committee, the opposition circulated another document titled ‘Joint opposition’s submission on ToRs’ among the members, to which comments of the government side will be furnished in the next meeting.

The committee in principle agreed on the preamble of the ToRs of the inquiry commission. “However, the differences on the wording of the ToRs remain and will be discussed in subsequent meetings,” a press release issued after the meeting said.

In a brief talk to reporters after the meeting, Finance Minister Ishaq Dar said out of 15, two points of the opposition parties had been removed from the list. However, he said, there was an agreement on initial framework of the ToRs and in the next phase detailed discussion would be held on them.

Railways Minister Khawaja Saad Rafique said the meeting was held in a pleasant environment with the understanding that no one could move forward without dialogue whether it was the government or the opposition. He clarified that there was no deadlock in advancing the committee’s proceeding.

He said there was consensus that the ToRs should not be personality-specific. He said the government was always ready to hold dialogue on the ToRs.

Leader of Opposition in Senate Aitzaz Ahsan said there was consensus on four points of the initial framework of ToRs and second phase of the draft would be finalized on Friday (today). He said the opposition parties had offered the government to withdraw two points, out of 15 it submitted before the committee.

Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf leader Shah Mehmood Qureshi said the opposition’s 15 questions were not meaningless. “We will not compromise on the basic issues. Ambiguous ToRs are not acceptable,” he said.

He said point-to-point discussion had been initiated on the ToRs, adding that the committee wanted to make the inquiry on Panama leaks result-oriented. He said the government side was of the view that personalities should not be targeted in the ToRs, and “We agreed.”

The committee will meet again on Friday (today) at 11:00 am.