Judges to decide who is to be probed first: Dar

Says commission can start probe from whoever they want including PM’s children, engage any internal or international forensic audit firm, get information from any govt department including FBR; asks why certain quarters are shy to get their offshore companies and foreign assets probed; those who benefited from tax amnesty schemes and protected by law and court need not worry

ISLAMABAD: Finance Minister Ishaq Dar said on Monday that the ToRs for the Inquiry Commission are comprehensive in nature and it will be the discretion of the honorable judges as to which case they take up first for the probe.

Talking to The News, the finance minister said that it would be indecent on the part of the government if it tells the judges of the apex court from where they should start.“They know what they have to do. They can start from whoever they want, including the children of the prime minister,” Dar said.

Regarding the opposition’s demand for a change in the Terms of Reference, he said that the opposition parties should make their proposals public so that the people as well as the government could know what they wanted.

Dar said that it will not be acceptable to the government nor does it meet the demands of justice and fairplay that only the family of the prime minister is held accountable while all others are spared from the process.

He asked why certain quarters are shy in getting their offshore companies and foreign assets probed besides what has been already disclosed by the Panama Papers. Dar said the government had formulated the ToRs which will allow the inquiry commission to probe far beyond what was revealed by the Panama Leaks.

Referring to the opposition’s objections to the government ToRs, he said the commission has been given unfettered powers which include engaging any internal or international forensic audit firm.

Meanwhile, the Adviser to the Prime Minister on Law Barrister Zafarullah Khan, when approached, said the commission could not undo the court decisions in case of any individual or company being probed. He said that similarly those individuals or companies which had benefited from tax amnesty schemes in the past, should also not worry as such schemes are protected under the law and also had court endorsements.

About the tax returns of any individual or company under probe of the commission, he said the commission will have the power to get any document from any government institution, including the FBR. He said that all the government departments, federal as well as provincial, are bound to provide whatever the commission may seek from them concerning any case under probe.