Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Monday reiterated its demand that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif should come in the Parliament to clarify his position on his separate statements; one made in the National Assembly and another submitted by his lawyer in the Supreme Court in Panama Papers case. Speaking on a point of order, PTI leader Shah Mahmood Qureshi said that his party would keep demanding the Prime Minister to explain his position until he comes in the Parliament and makes the clarification.
"Nawaz Sharif has become a fugitive," he said, while other PTI members chanted "respond Nawaz Sharif, respond." Qureshi said that there is a clear difference between statement of the Prime Minister made on the floor of the National Assembly regarding his family's Mayfair flats and the one made by his lawyer Salman Butt in the Supreme Court in Panama Papers case.
"This is the issue of the Prime Minister's credibility; therefore, he should come in the House and explain his position," he said, adding that his party wants to give the Prime Minister benefit of doubt and urge him to explain his position. He also demanded the treasury benches to give assurance to his party members that the Prime Minister will come in the House to make a statement regarding ownership and money trail of the Mayfair flats in London.
The PTI members also chanted vociferous slogans against the government for parrying their demand about the Prime Minister's attendance in the House. Earlier, speaking on a point of order President Awami Muslim League Sheikh Rashid Ahmad lambasted Speaker National Assembly Sardar Ayaz Sadiq for his partisan role in the House. "In the last three-and-half-year, only one adjournment motion of the opposition has been accepted and this is unfortunate that your role as a speaker is biased towards the opposition members," he said.
He also questioned the speaker's role on sending the reference of the PML-N against Chairman PTI Imran Khan to the Election Commission of Pakistan for further action and rejecting other references submitted against the Prime Minister. Sheikh Rashid said the people are demanding justice in the Panama Papers case and they are not ready to fall prey to 'false statements' of the treasury benches.
He said the Prime Minister said in the National Assembly that he has all the evidence and money trail regarding the offshore properties, but his lawyer in the Supreme Court said that no material evidence was available to prove that Mayfair properties were bought with a legitimate capital.
Responding to all these points, PML-N member Daniyal Aziz said the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) has deleted name of the Prime Minister from his documents after he challenged them with the facts. He also accused the journalists working with the ICIJ as 'fake' and said there is an international conspiracy behind this saga to destabilise Pakistan.
Daniyal Aziz also accused the Chairman PTI of malpractice and demanded him to come in the Parliament to explain his position on funds collection of his party in the United States. "There is neither a contradiction in statements of the Prime Minister and his children regarding the offshore properties nor they bought these flats with illegitimate money," he said.
PTI member Shah Mahmood Qureshi said that Chairman PTI will come in the House the day Prime Minister will come to explain his position on the contradictory statements. Qureshi also pressed the Speaker to allow the PTI member Murad Saeed to respond to the allegations of Daniyal Aziz, but the Speaker didn't allow.