ISLAMABAD: The Panama Papers Inquiries Bill 2016 of the opposition parties could not be discussed in a Senate panel meeting on Friday, owing to the absence of the majority of the bill movers and difference of opinion on it.
The Senate Standing Committee on Law and Justice, which met with PML-N’s Javed Abbasi in the chair, wanted to discuss the bill, but PPP’s Babar Awan insisted that the bill could not be discussed in the absence of most of the movers.
The panel will now seek more time for deliberations. After the meeting, government and opposition senators traded allegations and counter-allegations regarding the committee’s failure to make any headway on the bill. The meeting was also marred by Senator Awan’s walk-out. He was brought back by Aitzaz Ahsan, Saeed Ghani, Taj Haider and some others.
Several weeks back, the bill had been moved by 47 members of opposition parties including Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), Awami National Party (ANP), Balochistan National Party Awami (BNP-A), Pakistan Muslim League (Quaid) and Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM).
Awan staged the walkout when the committee chairman asked Ahsan to go for a clause-by-clause reading of the bill, who wanted presence of all the movers. But Ahsan insisted that the original bill moved by the opposition parties must be taken up without any amendment to it.
The PPP backed by other opposition parties, during the previous meeting, had proposed amendment to the bill to include ANP proposals regarding inclusion of offshore companies owned by other individuals.
During Friday’s meeting, Ahsan expressed reservations that the committee members and the bill movers were informed on Thursday night on a short notice of the meeting on such an important legislation. He claimed to have been intimated on Thursday evening by an SMS.
ANP’s Senator Shahi Syed said his party’s position was clear regarding amendment to the bill and it strictly adhered to the stance to make all offshore companies part of it. He emphasised that the bill should be renamed The Panama Papers and All Offshore Companies Inquiries Bill. The veteran senator contended that if his party’s proposals were not included in the bill, his party would not support the legislation.
As Ahsan was about to start reading out the bill, Senator Awan asserted, “We are not sitting here to injure spirit of the constitution, the bill should not be discussed in the absence of the movers.”
On this, other members including PPP’s Senator Farooq H Naek and Saifullah Magsi said the reservations voiced by Senator Awan were valid, therefore, the Senate chairman should be requested for extension in time to discuss the bill in its next meeting.
The standing committee has to report to the Senate within 60 days after a bill is referred to it. The bill was tabled in the Senate on September 27 and referred to the committee the same day. So the period of 60 days ends by November 27. The committee has decided that the Senate chairman would be requested for 20 more days and that the next committee meeting would be held on December 8.
Earlier, during the meeting, responding to the members’ reservations, Javed Abbasi said all committee members were issued notices and also informed on phone. The committee requested for extension in time, but the house opposed it for the first time in the parliamentary practice that resulted in a delay in issuance of notices. He alleged that the opposition members who moved the bill were not ready to discuss the bill as half of them had moved court in this regard.
PML-N’s Ayesha Raza Farooq insisted that the legislation should not be discriminatory, and should not target a single person. “We need to legislate for accountability not to target a specific person,” she maintained.
Senator Saeed Ghani of the PPP said the government itself had sent a letter to the supreme court to constitute a commission for probing the matter. “The bill does not aim to target a single person but is meant just to support the government,” he said.
Federal Law and Justice Minister Zahid Hamid charged that the opposition was not ready for clause-by-clause reading of the bill and instead wanted to get it passed straightaway in the Senate.