Nine opposition parties took just two days to agree on terms of reference (ToRs) that would be on sent by a letter to the leader of the house, Prime Minister, Nawaz Sharif, by the leader of the opposition, Syed Khurshid Shah. This indicates a reaffirmation of the critical role that parliament must play in a democracy when the sources of wealth (both within and outside the country) of the leader of the house merit an investigation. The supremacy of parliament was also reasserted in the Opposition's ToRs by their demand that the commission should not be established according to the letter written by the executive but by an act of parliament. This would take away the onus of setting up an independent commission, in letter and spirit, away from the executive, as it should, given that the head of the executive would be under investigation.

And in this context, the proposed act is to be titled "The Panama Papers (inquiry and trial) Act 2016" which essentially implies that if found guilty the investigation would lead to an indictment leading to a trial. In other words, the Prime Minister's first speech to the nation post-Panama leaks, that if found guilty he would go home.

The Prime Minister is correct in insisting that there is nothing new in the Panama Papers. There has been talk of his family owning Mayfair flats for decades, yet there are conflicting statements over more than two decades, with respect to the