Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan said on Saturday the judicial commission announced by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to probe the Panama leaks was an ‘eyewash’. He said the opposition had not been taken into confidence on the terms of reference (ToRs) of the commission.

“This is an eyewash and joke with the nation and is aimed at burying justice and accountability,” he stated this while addressing a press conference in Islamabad on Saturday. The PTI chief once again demanded of the government to set up a CJ-led judicial commission and hire international audit firms to probe the issue.

He said that inquiry under the proposed judicial commission would not be completed even after five years and the prime minister would be able to dissolve the commission through one notification. Responding a question, he said the PTI rejected the recommended judicial commission on the Panama leaks. He stated that the government had the authority to dissolve the commission whenever it wants.

He said the proposed judicial commission would only have powers of a civil court. Answering another question, the PTI chairman said that terms of reference of the judicial commission should have been finalised in consultation with the opposition parties.

Criticising prime minister’s address to the nation, Khan said, “Instead of clarifying his position over the Panama Papers, Sharif levelled allegations against his opponents.” He said that he would present himself for accountability once the allegations against the prime minister are investigated. “It is not me or anyone else who would prove allegations against Sharif. The prime minister has to prove the allegations wrong before the commission,” he said. He asked the prime minister to make public his tax returns from 1990 to 2013. He said that country didn’t suffer from PTI’s sit-in but in fact it suffered a great deal because of corruption. He said that institutions would improve through accountability.

He said the PTI would hit the streets if it has to and announce its future course of action at a public meeting in connection with his party’s 20th birth anniversary on Sunday.

Almost three weeks after the leaks revealed that the prime minister’s three children were among dozens of influential people from across the globe having offshore companies in tax havens, the government sent a letter to the Supreme Court registrar, requesting chief justice of Pakistan to form an inquiry commission under broad-based terms of reference.

The cricketer-turned-politician was of the view that head of states in democratic governments must have moral authority and this was what the prime minister had already lost. He said the commission may acquire services of a forensic audit firm as well as the ISI, FBR, NAB and even NADRA for internal and external probe of foreign accounts.

On April 5, Nawaz had formed a judicial commission led by a former judge of the Supreme Court, which was rejected by the opposition demanding probe led by the chief justice and audit by an international firm.