12-member parliamentary committee to meet today

ISLAMABAD: The 12-member parliamentary committee comprising of six members each from the government and the opposition, will have a sit-down today to frame the code of conduct.

Senator Ishaq Dar, Senator Mir Hasil Khan Bizenjo, Khawaja Mohammad Asif, Anusha Rehman, Akram Khan Durrani and Khawaja Saad Rafique will represent the government.

Senator Aitzaz Ahsan, Shah Mehmood Qureshi, Sahibzada Tariqullah, Ilyas Ahmed Bilour, Tariq Basheer Cheema and Senator Barrister Muhammad Ali Saif are representing the opposition.

Speaker Ayaz Sadiq has the legal authority to replace any member of the parliamentary committee on the request of any parliamentary leader. The parliamentary committee has been tasked with framing the terms of reference on how to investigate important issues such as the flight of capital abroad, written-off loans and offshore companies.

The parliamentary committee was announced by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in his address at the National Assembly last week. The parliamentary committee had been formed after both the government and the opposition had rejected each other's proposed ToRs.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has been facing calls by opposition parties and leaders to resign after names of this three children Maryam, Hassan and Hussain surfaced in the Panama leaks controversy. The Panama papers contained names of offshore companies which could be traced to the names of the PM's children.

PTI chief Imran Khan has already warned the government of a street protest if the Prime Minister did not hold himself accountable.