Parliamentary committee makes no headway on ToRs

Govt seeks time till Friday to respond to opposition’s fresh proposals; Aitzaz says deadlock still persists; Saad Rafiq says opposition wants accountability of only one person

ISLAMABAD: The Parliamentary Committee on ToRs failed to make any headway on Tuesday, as the government sought time till Friday from the opposition to respond to its fresh proposals.

As the deadline of Parliamentary Committee to formulate the ToRs expired on Tuesday, the members debated whether they could continue working beyond the constitutional timeframe work.

In the sixth meeting of the committee, the opposition members circulated a document titled “TERMS OF REFERENCE (As proposed by the Government and amended by the Opposition)”. The government members pointed out that there was a substantial difference between the ToRs circulated by them earlier and those circulated by the opposition on Tuesday.

The government members suggested that an opportunity may be given to review the document circulated by the opposition today and consult among themselves. “We have accepted three out of four ToRs which the government presented to us and we have suggested an amendment to one of the points of the ToRs,” said Opposition Leader in the Senate Chaudhry Aitzaz Ahsan while talking to newsmen along with the PTI Deputy leader in the National Assembly Shah Mehmood Qureshi and other opposition members of the committee after attending a meeting of the Parliamentary Committee.

Aitzaz Ahsan said the government team had sought time till Friday and will come out with their reply to the opposition’s amendments to the ToRs on Friday.

“Accepting their 75 percent of TORs, we have proposed an amendment to one of the points of the TORs and this amendment is workable, viable and practical,” he said. However, Aitzaz Ahsan said despite all this the deadlock still persisted between the opposition and the government.

“The government team’s attitude towards our fresh proposals was not encouraging and they did not want to accept our proposals,” he said.

PTI Deputy Leader in the National Assembly Shah Mehmood Qureshi said the deadlock still persisted in the Parliamentary Committee.  “The government wants to give backdoor to some offshore companies,” he added.

Talking to newsmen after the meeting, Railway Minister Khawaja Saad Rafiq said the government wanted to reach consensus on the issue. “We wanted an even-handed accountability but unfortunately the opposition’s accountability revolves around only one person,” he added. He said the names of the family of the prime minister had not been mentioned in the PanamaLeaks, but the opposition only wanted the accountability of the prime minister.