Give and take must to break deadlock in talks on ToRs

ISLAMABAD: The firm stands taken by the government and the opposition on prospective Terms of Reference (ToRs) apart, the deliberations of the bipartisan committee on Tuesday were largely overshadowed by reports that kept pouring in about the open heart surgery of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in a London hospital.

When the committee held its session, the operation in which four by-passes were done was in the final stage and constant encouraging news was coming in, in bits and pieces about the premier’s condition.

Obviously, the crucial surgery weighed heavily on the minds of all and sundry especially the government’s negotiating team led by Finance Minister Senator Ishaq Dar. The next meeting was scheduled for Saturday because the coming few days will be very hectic for the government due to the annual presidential address to the parliament and presentation of federal budget in the National Assembly.

Everyone was more interested in knowing the progress in the operation theatre. The prime minister’s daughter, Maryam, frequently kept updating through her Tweets. Finally, Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif, flanked by his son Hamza, and the two sons of Nawaz Sharif, Hussain and Hassan, gave the good news in London that the operation was successful and satisfactory, and the prime minister will follow the advice of the doctors in deciding his return to Pakistan.

“Because of our busy schedule over the past three days, it was not possible to prepare for the discussions in the parliamentary committee,” a member of the government team told The News.

But, he said, this doesn’t mean that the government is dragging its feet on formulating the ToRs. “Everybody will see in the days to come that we are serious in finalizing the ToRs so that the judicial commission is formed and probes the offshore companies, written off loans and corruption.”

The opposition leaders regretted that there was no progress in the meeting and deadlock that hit the dialogue in the last meet persisted. They said that the government did not offer its counter response to their proposals.

In all such tough talks, certain opposition leaders always want a stalemate by taking a position that is not acceptable to the other side and as a consequence they want to create chaos and anarchy. Same is precisely happening now. The present set is trying to thrust its own ToRs containing fifteen questions, which were termed biased and Nawaz Sharif-specific by many discerning people immediately after they were released.

These elements have then kept insisting that their ToRs are final as a kind of gospel truth, which has to be accepted in totality. Obviously, not only the current government but no regime can consent to such extremely slanted proposals.

Following his party line, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) representative in the committee Shah Mehmood Qureshi warned that the government and this forum don’t have much time, and they have to hurry up to bow to their ToRs. When the joint opposition had agreed to delete its question relating to the prime minister, Qureshi had received disapproval from certain circles of his party.

“The government’s attitude was not positive; it should tell whether it wants to rectify or mar the situation,” Qureshi later said.  There is no mention of starting the investigation from any individual or family or the prime minister first in the Supreme Court’s letter that was written in response to the government’s communication, or the resolution, unanimously passed by the National Assembly and the Senate. But still Aitzaz Ahsan is adamant that the probe should begin from Nawaz Sharif. Acceptance of his demand will be violation of the two prestigious documents that carry weight and worth.

After Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) chief and former President Asif Ali Zardari has endorsed the hardline taken by Aitzaz Ahsan in the parliamentary committee, the senator is buoyed up for the reason that he has prevailed upon his party to pursue a tough line.

There is no denying that if the opposition specifically the PTI and PPP nominees, who are keen to have the impasse continued, remained unrelenting on its stand that its ToRs must be accepted, no progress is in sight as the government is not going to agree to them come what may.

Unless the two sides decide to find a common ground, deadlock will not be broken. In such parleys, the principle of give and take has to be adopted, which sadly seems missing now.

Aitzaz Ahsan was of the view that the government knows that if it agreed to the opposition’s ToRs, everything will become crystal clear about the dealings in the offshore companies. On the other hand, the government is clear that it has nothing to hide and the premier’s name doesn’t figure as owner of any offshore shell.