Difficulties ahead

This refers to the news report, ‘Sharif family must be proven guilty or not within three months, says opposition’ (May 4). There is no doubt that the proposed ToRs and the law that will cover the inquiry commission to probe the Panama Papers is very comprehensive and PM specific. However, there are major lacunae in the implementation of the ToRs. First, the chief justice has not given any hint of him willing to head such a commission. Even if the CJP agrees to head the commission with the ToRs unanimously agreed by the opposition, the PM will never agree simply because his government has proposed a different and much wider set of ToRs that cover much more than what is mentioned in the Panama leaks and a longer period to cover all corrupt practices including loan defaults.

So far, so good. But some of the stalwarts of the two main opposition parties are also involved in establishing offshore companies. Moreover, the provincial governments of Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa are not very effective in governance, and are plagued with infighting and corruption scandals. This makes them vulnerable to criticism and allegations by PML-N supporters. And, another list containing the names of offshore beneficiaries is expected to be released to the media on May 9 by the ICJC. What if some more stalwarts of opposition parties are named in the new list?

Zaheer Ahmed

Islamabad