SCBA chief questions ToRs

The federal government has designed Terms of Reference (ToRs) of the judicial commission to probe Panama leaks in a way that the whole process of the accountability should be stalled. Ali Zafar, Supreme Court Bar Association President, said this on Saturday while talking to Business Recorder on the issue. He said the judicial commission will take at least four years to complete the task if it starts working under the proposed TORs. "This will be a powerless and confused judicial commission; therefore the people should not expect any robust outcome from it," he said.
Zafar said the commission will only be able to deliver if it is empowered to take assistance from a foreign audit firm to conduct the forensic audit of all the assets of the Sharif family. "It is ridiculous to add to the TORs that the judicial commission will also probe the cases like loan write-off," he said, adding the judicial commission should focus only on the offshore accounts of the Sharif family to determine legality of the assets and money trail. He said the Supreme Court Bar Association has already proposed to the government that the commission should be bound to complete its task within two months.
"We will soon call a meeting of presidents of all bar associations to decide future plan of action on the Panama leaks as the commission constituted by the government is just an eyewash," he said.
On the other hand, Syed Shabbar Zaidi, a chartered accountant and economic expert, says the judicial commission can reach a conclusion on offshore accounts of the prime minister's family within days if source or sources of income of the Sharif family and money trail are investigated properly. He said there is no need to hire a foreign audit firm to investigate the offshore accounts because the accused are Pakistani citizens and a local audit firm can also do the job easily. "It is a simple matter of investigation of the money trail and source of income but requires will power and expertise to reach the conclusion," he said.