Panama leaks: Govt gives in to unyielding opposition

PM to address NA on Friday to clarify his position, says Rashid

ISLAMABAD: The government apparently gave in to relentless pressure from the opposition on Tuesday, assuring federal lawmakers that Premier Nawaz Sharif will attend the National Assembly session on Friday to answer questions about offshore businesses of his children revealed by the Panama Papers last month.

The assurance from Information Minister Pervaiz Rashid could not impress opposition MPs, who again staged walkouts from both houses of parliament according to a strategy they thrashed out before parliament convened on Monday.  They agreed not to attend the sessions unless the premier replies to the Panama leaks claims in the house.

“The prime minister is busy today, and on Wednesday he will be going to Tajikistan. However, he will attend the assembly proceedings on Friday,” Rashid told the lower house. “The prime minister has never shied away from appearing in the house.”

Opposition Leader Khursheed Shah, along with other opposition lawmakers, including those from the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, entered the house during the Question Hour only to announce that “we are staging a walkout in line with our yesterday’s decision that we will not attend the session unless the premier shows up”.

Rashid said the prime minister would answer all the questions raised by the opposition. “The prime minister always likes to attend the house proceedings and listen to opposition lawmakers,” he said.

He recalled that Nawaz Sharif had already written to the chief justice of Pakistan to form a commission to probe the Panama leaks and that he himself wanted to appear before it. “However, the opposition is more interested in walkouts,” he added.

Earlier, Shah said the prime minister should take parliament and the nation into confidence over revelations in the Panama Papers. The name of prime minister in the leaked documents has brought a bad name to the country, he added.

“The opposition wants to maintain the respect and decorum of the house and does not want to vitiate the atmosphere,” he added. The opposition then walked out of the house with Shah saying if the prime minister appeared in the house on Friday, the opposition would also follow suit.



As the opposition left the house, PTI’s Lal Chand pointed out the lack of quorum and Speaker Ayaz Sadiq suspended the proceedings.  After an hour, treasury lawmakers appeared in droves apparently due to efforts of the law minister and Rashid to avert further embarrassment.

Since Tuesday was a private members’ day, most of the agenda items were deferred due to absence of opposition lawmakers. Later, after carrying out business including motions and a few speeches from the cabinet members, the speaker adjourned the house.

Senate proceedings

Unlike the National Assembly, the government did not confirm that the prime minister would also appear before the upper house, which is also in session and demands Nawaz Sharif’s appearance. The proceedings of the Senate were also marred by a walkout on the second consecutive day.

Leader of Opposition Aitzaz Ahsan announced the walkout soon after the Question Hour, though he did mention the government’s assurance earlier made in the lower house about the prime minister’s appearance on Friday.

The opposition leader appreciated the announcement but said the opposition would walk out from the proceedings until Nawaz appeared in the house. Chairman Raza Rabbani told Leader of House Raja Zafarul Haq that if the premier was attending the National Assembly session, then he should also come to this house. There were only six agenda item for Tuesday’s sitting. However, all of them, except for the Question Hour and an adjournment motion, were dropped due to the absence of opposition members.

Offer for talks

After their walkout, the opposition parties held a meeting at Aitzaz Ahsan’s chamber over government’s decision to engage in talks over the Panama leaks.

Addressing the media, Ahsan confirmed the government had contacted him for talks. He welcomed the move and said the opposition would constitute its committee for talks once the government made the announcement.

Responding to a question, he said the opposition’s stance over the Panama Papers scandal was based on justice. “We want tPrime Minister Nawaz Sharif to clear his name,” Ahsan added.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 11^th, 2016.