Govt has last say in decision on ToRs: Lawyers

ISLAMABAD: The federal government has the last say in deciding the ToRs of an inquiry commission under the law of the land. The hullabaloo on the opposition’s ToRs is meaningless and even if a new law is promulgated for an inquiry commission on the Panama Papers, it will be the federal government that has to send the ToRs to the Supreme Court, senior lawyers opine.

The legal minds are of the view that like the commission on the rigging charges, the opposition should have negotiated with the government on the ToRs first before unveiling their own ToRs. Regarding the faulty ToRs of the opposition, legal experts say that it is the federal government that has to decide what has to be sent to the Supreme Court and what not, therefore, the government can remove the discrepancies before moving ahead.

Justice (retd) Tariq Mehmood, one of the respected lawyers of the country, while talking to The News said that the opposition knew that there existed a law on the inquiry commissions under which the ToRs were decided by the government. That is why they have demanded for a new law but a new law can only be promulgated with the consent of the government. He said the opposition should have negotiated with the government to reach a consensus otherwise all the efforts prior to that would be futile. “We have a recent example when the PTI and the government had multiple sessions to reach an accord for a commission of inquiry on rigging charges and it took months to reach that accord,” said Justice Tariq adding: “On the rigging commission too, the prime minister made a speech in haste in August 2014 that he has sent a letter to the chief justice to form a commission and on the Panama Papers too, the PM himself made an issue out of the news by making two speeches to the nation.” He held that sense should prevail and if both the parties, opposition and the government, are sincere, then new ToRs could be made or the old could be amended to resolve the issue. He said at present it is political point-scoring rather than making an inquiry commission.

Another senior legal mind of the country, Justice (retd) Wajhiuddin Ahmad said that if the government gives liberty to the chief justice and the CJ is ready to take up the issue, then both the ToRs could be placed before him and he may choose the appropriate ones. He said that the faulty ToRs could be removed or amended because neither the ToRs of government are gazetted nor of the opposition. He said that ToRs should be appropriate and the CJ should be given the choice to adopt the appropriate ones.

Advocate Supreme Court of Pakistan, Azhar Siddique, while talking to The News, said that under the Commissions of Inquiry Act 1956, the court or the judges cannot alter a single word of the ToRs as in the case of Model Town killings inquiry, the registrar of the commission wrote a letter to the home secretary to add some clauses to the ToRs but the home secretary rejected his application saying under the law, the commission cannot alter the ToRs. He said that under the act, the commission could only be fact finding and its findings cannot be produced as evidence anywhere.

Siddique held that in India, the report of the commission is placed before parliament for appropriate action. He said the government’s ToRs and the opposition’s suggestions are an eyewash as no one wants to inquire the issue thoroughly. Otherwise, they would have agreed on the ToRs by now, he added.