ISLAMABAD: Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) leader and Leader of Opposition in Senate Barrister Aitzaz Ahsan on Friday said that the opposition parties will decide a new strategy (over Panama Papers) to expose corruption of the ruling elite during a meeting on Monday.
Talking to journalists, he said that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif was not aware of the parliament’s respect, as he (prime minister) and his government was in a state of fear. He said that even ministers were not willing to defend their prime minister.
On Friday, the opposition released a list of seven points of disclosure for the prime minister ahead of his planned attendance in the National Assembly. Earlier, a series of questions was prepared in a meeting of the opposition parties chaired by Aitzaz Ahsan in the Parliament House.
The questionnaire asked the prime minister to clarify when and how four apartments in London’s Mayfair area were purchased and the source of taxable income used to purchase them, to name property held by PM Nawaz and his family between 1985 and 2016 and the source of taxable income available to the PM and his family during that period.
The questionnaire also asked the prime minister to confirm which of the four, seemingly contradictory, claims to explain the ownership and purchase of the Mayfair flats is correct. The terms of disclosure follow the PM’s announcement he will attend Friday’s session of the Parliament to answer the queries regarding the Panama Papers.
Formally withdrawing their demand for the prime minister’s resignation, the opposition parties last week finally agreed on a draft of the terms of reference (ToRs) for the judicial commission to investigate the allegations of the Panama Papers.
The opposition parties want the formation of a three-member judicial commission – headed by the chief justice of Pakistan – through an act of the parliament. They say the proposed commission should first hold an inquiry against the prime minister and members of his family and will be given three months, extendable to four, to complete the task.
Only then, according to the opposition-drafted ToRs, it can start proceedings against others named in the Panama Papers and will have a year to complete this task. Earlier, the government rejected the draft of the terms of reference for an inquiry commission on the allegations. The government indicated that it was willing to sit with the opposition to come up with terms of reference that were focused on eliminating corruption and did not target the prime minister personally.
The data from the Panama Papers, available on the website of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists — one of around 100 news organisations and 300 journalists that worked on mining the data simultaneously — also reveals the offshore holdings of members of the Sharif’s family.
