Parliamentary committee for TORs almost on the rocks

By Tariq Butt

June 14, 2016

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PTI may not find effective partner to take to streets as threatened; it may have to make solo flight

ISLAMABAD: The representatives of six opposition parties in the parliamentary committee, constituted to frame Terms of Reference (ToRs) for the judicial commission to probe offshore companies, are confronted with a big challenge of maintaining unity and speaking with one voice in the forum.

They will face the task of devising a unanimous line of action to be taken in the committee when they meet before its scheduled session on Tuesday. Their deliberations will produce make or break outcome for the loose alliance. The discussions are being held amidst mounting threats of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan to start street agitation after Eid-ul-Fitr.

There are clear indications that hardly any force from amongst the six parties represented in the committee fully shares the PTI’s point of view or inflexibility. Not only that, they feel embarrassed by the PTI’s constant threats of launching protest even when the parliamentary panel is still engaged in talks to bridge differences over the ToRs of the two sides.

However, instead of abandoning the panel after its seventh meeting last week, the PTI has decided to put in efforts to persuade the opposition parties to take them along in the agitation. Obviously, the month of Ramazan is not suitable for protest. The PTI is spending this time in campaigning that the government is insincere to any meaningful investigations into the offshore companies.

PTI nominee in the committee Shah Mehmood Qureshi was disappointed and frustrated after the last consultations and projected his views to the effect. He was skeptical about any positive result of the dialogue in the forum. However, still the PTI decided to be part of the dialogue process for some time.

While it desperately wants the support of the opposition parties for its hard line, it has highlighted in the committee and for its impending protest, the government is also busy in explaining to some of them that it is not responsible for lack of immediate agreement in the forum.

The purpose of a meeting of Federal Ministers Khawaja Saad Rafique and Anusha Rehman with Jamaat-e-Islami chief Sirajul Haq was to brief him about the discussions, which have so far taken place within the committee between the two sides.

No opposition party is expected to work shoulder to shoulder with the PTI in any protest in case the talks in the committee finally break down. The situation is heading towards the falling apart of the negotiations. If any political force at all expressed solidarity with the PTI’s agitation, it will be only symbolic.

Some opposition representatives specifically those belonging to the PTI and Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) in the committee are insistent on confining the probe by the judicial commission to the offshore shells identified in the Panama Papers disclosures. They want focus on Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his family. They are not much concerned about the investigation into the offshore companies discovered otherwise, written off loans and corruption.

However, the government has taken a firm stand in the committee that the new law should not lapse after the present probe; should not be specific for the Panama leaks; should be generic to cover all kinds of such companies now and in future and should not concentrate on the prime minister.

To put its stance in black and white, the government side has prepared a law to replace the Commissions of Inquiry Act 1956 and handed it over to the opposition, which rejected it instantly and claimed that the deadlock persisted. It also repeated its usual assertion that the government is keen to save the prime minister from investigation, which is impeding any progress in the committee.