The government and opposition on Tuesday failed to make any progress on terms of references (ToRs) for the proposed commission to investigate Panama Papers leak, as there is 'complete deadlock' in the committee. The parliamentary committee tasked work out unanimous ToRs met for its sixth in-camera sitting at the Parliament House, but even could not finalise its time frame for the panel to conclude its work.
The Tuesday meeting, according to opposition members of the committee, was the last working day of the committee since it was formed on May 23 and was about to finalise ToRs in 14 days while the government side insisted that the committee is supposed to accomplish its task in 15 sittings. Talking to reporters after the meeting, members from opposition side including Chaudhry Aitzaz Ahsan of PPP, Shah Mehmood Qureshi of PTI, Alyas Ahmad Bilour of ANP and Tariqullah of Jamaat-i-Islami maintained that the deadlock has reached to "absolute deadlock", adding if the committee failed to resolve the matter, the opposition may approach the court.
Aitzaz Ahsan said that the opposition accepted three ToRs out of the four which were earlier presented by the government and also suggested amendment to the fourth one, adding the amendment was aimed at making the ToRs more effective and practicable. In today's meeting, he said that the opposition presented its unanimous proposals for which the government side sought some time and on Friday next the committee would deliberate on the opposition proposals. "We've accepted up to 75 percent input given by the government but despite that the deadlock still persist," he added.
To a question whether the government wants to exclude the Prime Minister and his family from the investigation, Aitzaz said that the opposition wanted that the law should be applied alike and there should be no immunity to any specific individual. Qureshi while responding to the same question, maintained that the government formed the committee titled "Parliamentary Committee on Panama Papers and etc" and now the government representatives in the panel wanted to proceed on "etc" first and not on the "Panama Papers" in which the Prime Minister's children have been named. "We want all those points identified by the government like the loans write-off issue and kickbacks but the investigation needs to be started from Panama papers," he said, adding the government wanted an investigation on its own terms.
Qureshi further said that the opposition also raised objection on a proposal presented by the government in Finance Bill, which they feared that the government may give "clean chit" to some holders of the offshore companies. He said that the opposition had urged the government to address their reservations over the proposal. However, he said that Finance Minister Ishaq Dar had promised them if the government failed to address the opposition's apprehension, the proposal will be withdrawn. The government team members Khawaja Saad Rafiq, Zahid Hamid, Anosha Rehman, Hasil Khan Bizinjo and Akram Khan Durrani also spoke to media separately and regretted the opposition's 'attitude' in the committee.
"The ToRs presented by the opposition are totally person-specific and we don't see any effective and across the board accountability in such situation," Saad Rafiq said, adding the government has requested to meet for another meeting on Friday so that the government could give its opinion on the proposals presented by them. He said that the opposition had suggested a legislation titled as "Panama Papers Act", which is not acceptable. "We are ready to form a commission to investigate the allegations but it is not acceptable to make legislation on allegations levelled on a foreign website without any evidence," he added.
To a question, he said that the government asked the opposition to refrain from destabilizing Pakistan on the pretext of investigation into the Panama papers, adding the country has already suffered due to the long protest last year by the PTI. Speaking on the proposal in Finance Bill, Zahid Hamid said that it was an issue of national interest and the government had given a suggestion in the Income Tax Act, which is a requirement for the country's accession to Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).
He said that Finance Minister and chairman FBR had also explained the government's position on the proposal and it had nothing to do with providing a "clean chit" to anybody. According to a press release issued following the meeting, the opposition members circulated a document titled "Terms of Reference (As proposed by the government and amended by the opposition)".
During the discussion, the government members pointed out that there was substantial difference between the ToRs circulated by the government earlier and the ToRs circulated by the opposition today. The government members suggested that an opportunity may be given to review the document circulated by the Opposition side today and consult among themselves.
Senators Ishaq Dar, Aitzaz Ahsan, Mir Hasil Khan Bizenjo, Muhammad Ali Saif and Ilyas Ahmad Bilour; and Members of the National Assembly Zahid Hamid, Khawaja Saad Rafique, Akram Khan Durrrani, Anusha Rehman Khan, Makhdoom Shah Mahmood Hussain Qureshi, Sahibzada Tariq Ullah and Chaudhry Tariq Bashir Cheema attended the meeting as members of the Committee. The next meeting of the Committee will be held on Friday June 10, 2016 at 11:30 am in Committee Room No 5, Parliament House, Islamabad.