MPs’ body to decide on period to be covered by commission

ISLAMABAD: The 12-member bipartisan parliamentary committee will decide, among other key issues, the period to be covered by the judicial commission in its investigation into offshore companies, corruption and written off bank loans.

Another vital point to be resolved by the committee is whether the findings of the commission will be mandatory or non-binding. It is always left to the government to implement or consign to the archives the reports of such forums.

The forum will also decide whether a new law, as demanded by the Terms of Reference (ToRs) devised by the opposition parties, will be required or the Pakistan Commissions of Inquiry Act 1956 will suffice to probe the present contentious controversial matters.

As far as the period to be covered by the inquiry of the commission is concerned, the previous ToRs of the government were open-ended, according to which the investigation can even go back to 1947. The starting and cutoff time will have to be clearly cited in the consensus ToRs.

The opposition parties’ terms had confined the investigation to the offshore shells named in the Panama Papers and envisaged to assign ‘inquiry and trial’ of their revelations to the commission. Trial doesn’t generally falls in the purview of such commissions. Rather concerned investigation agencies do this job independently keeping in view the reports of these forums.

Representative bodies of the lawyers have proposed that the investigation may start from Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his children to find out if he had invested or owned any offshore properties or some crime or wrongdoing had been done inclusive of the trail of money/funds and reconciliation with the declarations before the Election Commission of Pakistan and income/wealth tax authorities from January 1, 1985 till date in phase one and then move downwards to those who are or were in any way in the government holding public offices.  The ToRs and the law that the parliamentary committee will frame will universally apply to all those who own offshore shells, which were either identified in the Panama leaks or detected otherwise. The mechanism of investigation that will be prescribed for the prime minister will also be invoked in regard to all those who will face inquiry before the commission. Moreover, the probe may start from the prime minister to cover all and sundry.

The lawyers’ representatives believed that the inquiry relating to leaked Panama Papers should be restricted to the MPs and holders of public office as they have to conform to the requirements of Articles 62 and 63 of the Constitution and not against businessmen or loan defaulters who are or have not been such position holders. This recommendation may be partly acceptable.

They have every right to make proposals but they have no say in the parliamentary committee, which comprises only those parties that have representation in the parliament. It is purely a politicians’ body.

The written off loans will exclusively relate to the sitting and former elected office holders. Similarly, the focus of the probe into the offshore companies will also mainly revolve around political figures belonging to all political parties. Hardly anybody is interested in inquiry into the offshore shells owned by the businessmen.

The lawyers’ bodies also resolved that the chief justice may nominate two renowned apex court judges, sitting or retired, and a legal expert of eminence as members of the commission which shall have the power to constitute an international joint investigation team from foreign agencies to provide information, documents, evidence and record from abroad by directing the Pakistan government to move the mutual legal assistance requests. The proposal of inducting former judges in the commission was earlier mooted by Justice (retd) Wajihuddin Ahmed. However, some opposition parties insist that the forum should comprise sitting justices.

It is clear from what National Assembly Speaker Sardar Ayaz Sadiq said on Sunday that the parliamentary committee would be constituted in a couple of days and would open its deliberations around mid-week.

The joint opposition parties have already nominated their six representatives for the committee while the government is yet to select its team, which will be led by Finance Minister Senator Ishaq Dar. It is expected to include Law Minister Zahid Hamid.  Being a committee for which the National Assembly and the Senate have passed a similar resolution for its establishment, it will submit its report to the parliament. After being endorsed by the legislature and the passage of a new law if it was recommended by the committee, the report will be submitted to the Supreme Court chief justice for setting up of the commission.