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Tuesday March 19, 2024

PM accepts another demand of opposition

By Tariq Butt
May 02, 2016

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has accepted another demand of the opposition parties by stating that the Supreme Court judicial commission can start from his family the inquiry into the offshore companies, named in the Panama Papers Leaks.

But will this offer be acceptable to the opposition forces with some of which using the opportunity to upset the democratic applecart? The answer is a big 'No' because they deeply wish that the entire probe into the offshore companies should be confined to the prime minister’s children and then this inquiry should be wrapped up. They dream that the investigation must indict Nawaz Sharif so that they succeed to ‘get’ him. They are not concerned with scrutiny of other offshore companies.

This is the second time in a couple of weeks that Nawaz Sharif has accepted another demand of the opposition. Previously, he agreed to the commission under the chairmanship of the chief justice instead of retired superior court judges.

The prime minister’s offer and his assertion that the apex court can even change the Terms of Reference (ToRs) of the government were timed with the return of Chief Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali after a week-long visit to Turkey and a joint meeting of the opposition parties scheduled for Monday.

A decision from the chief justice is expected on the official notification relating to the establishment of the judicial commission and containing the ToRs on Monday. On the same day, the opposition parties will come out with their consensus ToRs.

The opposition has stressed since word that the investigation in regard to the offshore companies should be restricted to the prime minister’s family, and a separate commission should be constituted to probe the offshore shells of Pakistani businessmen and politicians. However, this is in conflict with the demand for across-the-board, indiscriminate accountability.

However, it is clear from Nawaz Sharif’s declaration that he wants the same commission to look into his children’s offshore firms first and then to go to other companies, and that the forum should release its overall findings simultaneously.

“Our children will also appear before the commission to face the accountability,” Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif says.

 As the opposition parties make public their unanimous ToRs for the first time since the emergence of the offshore companies, no talks with the government are likely till May 5 due to the absence of chief government negotiator Finance Minister Ishaq Dar, who is in Germany in connection with a conference, from Pakistan.

The government is willing to engage in dialogue with the opposition so that the two sides get rid of each others objections to the ToRs. However, the two sets of ToRs will become inconsequential and irrelevant if the chief justice declined to form the commission on the politically explosive issue. In that eventuality, the government and the opposition will have to settle on some other body to get the investigation into the offshore companies conducted.

The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), which is in the forefront of the campaign on the offshore companies, has faced embarrassment due to discovery of such firms of its top leaders and financiers, Jehangir Tareen and Aleem Khan. One of them did declare in his tax returns that he sent funds to Britain through formal banking channels but did not reveal the offshore company that did the deal. The other stalwart remitted paltry money which, however, produced high priced flats in Britain. There is no proportion in the funds sent and the price of the property. Both will face questions in the judicial commission.

However, PTI Chairman Imran Khan has firmly defended Tareen and Aleem Khan, but Shah Mehmood Qureshi articulated an opposite view when he called for across-the-board accountability. When he stated this, he wanted to include Tareen and Aleem in the probe in the first instance.

As usual, the PTI is very hyper and upbeat as it has always been on the spur of the moment. Apart from countless pressers that Imran Khan has so far held, he has also addressed two public meetings, focusing on the offshore companies. He plans to continue the campaign. Like before, he will persist with this kind of movement even if the judicial commission was formed so that he can pressurize it into delivering a report, favourable to him. In the case of the commission that had inquired into his election rigging allegations and trashed them, he had run a forceful campaign when it was holding its proceedings, but had got nothing because the judges had refused to yield to his strategy.