Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: The backchannel negotiations of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) with the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) and the Awami National Party (ANP) have made it difficult for the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) to keep the opposition united on the issue of the Panama leaks.

A meeting of the parliamentary committee, which would prepare new terms of reference for the judicial commission on the Panama leaks, could not be convened on Thursday due to the changing political situation.

Sources told Daily Times that 24 members of the MQM in the National Assembly had become the most important for the government as well as the opposition, as both sides were looking for support in the parliamentary committee, which would finalise the terms of reference for the judicial commission.

Both sides are trying to have an assurance from the MQM for support in the parliamentary committee because the government and the opposition have equal representation in the committee.

A four-member delegation of the MQM met some ministers in the chamber of the National Assembly Speaker Sardar Ayaz Sadiq and demanded that they should be included in the parliamentary committee, which would finalise the terms of reference.

Sources said that federal ministers Ishaq Dar, Pervaiz Rashid and Saad Rafiq assured the MQM leaders that their party would have representation in the parliamentary committee. The minister also assured them that their concerns about the Karachi operation and missing party workers would be addressed.

“If the MQM is part of the opposition then why its members are sitting on the government benches. We have to decide about MQM’s inclusion in the parliamentary committee, not the government,” said Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Vice Chairman Shah Mahmood Qureshi while talking to reporters outside speaker’s chamber. Opposition parties have convened their meeting on Friday again to decide about the MQM, he said.

PPP sources said the PTI did not want the MQM representatives included in the parliamentary committee because it feared they would favour the government during voting on the terms of reference. As the committee has equal representation of the government and the opposition, loss of one vote would change the entire scenario, the sources said.