MQM calls on PM to resign voluntarily

Otherwise impartiality of judicial inquiry would be questioned

KARACHI: The Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) has joined the chorus calling for the resignation of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif until a proposed judicial commission completes its inquiry into revelations in the Panama Papers that the ruling Sharif family has secreted its money in offshore companies.

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf chief Imran Khan and Pakistan Peoples Party Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari have already called on the prime minister to step down as he has lost the ‘moral authority to stay in power’.



The demand from the Rabita Committee of the MQM, which is the third largest opposition party in parliament, will put pressure on the prime minister, who taunted his political rivals on Monday to wait until 2018 when his term expires or even beyond that.

In a press statement issued late Monday night, the MQM Rabita Committee said Premier Nawaz should resign till investigations into the Panama Papers expose have been completed so that the country could come out of the current state of turmoil.



“If Nawaz Sharif continues to stay in power, then his political opponents will raise questions on the impartiality of the investigations,” it said. It added that in a civilised society, [if accused of any wrongdoing] people holding top offices resigned voluntarily and waited for inquiry findings.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 3^rd, 2016.