Panamagate inquiry: Imran warns of street agitation over ToRs

PTI chief vows to lead 10% Pakistanis in protest against government

LAHORE: The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf chairman on Saturday accused the government of dilly-dallying on a Panamagate inquiry, warning that ’10 per cent of Pakistan’s population’ will hold street agitation if the terms of reference (ToRs) of the proposed inquiry commission are not drafted at the earliest.

Imran Khan’s threat came a day after his party hinted at quitting a parliamentary committee tasked to draft consensus ToRs. The committee has failed to break the deadlock as the PTI accuses the government of saving the Sharif family.

“Why [Prime Minister] Nawaz Sharif is afraid of ToRs? In fact, he is in habit of hiding his financial assets,” Imran said while speaking to journalists outside the Shaukat Khamum Memorial Cancer Hospital. “Nawaz Sharif has billions of rupees worth of assets in the name of his children.”

The government should tell the nation where did the money come from to buy Rs6 billion worth of houses in an upmarket London neighbourhood, he said, referring to the Sharif family’s luxury flats in the Mayfair Apartments.

Imran said the government was afraid that an independent inquiry would expose the Sharif family’s financial corruption. “I am not calling for the accountability of Nawaz Sharif only, I also offer myself up for accountability,” he said.



He drew parallels between Premier Nawaz Sharif and the prime minister of Iceland who stepped aside on April 6 – three days after the Panama Papers revealed that his family had sheltered money offshore. “[Prime Minister] Sigmundur Davíð Gunnlaugsson resigned after 10 per cent population of Iceland took to the streets,” Imran said.

The PTI chairman warned that he would also lead 10 per cent of Pakistanis on the streets if the government did not break the impasse over ToRs. “People will willingly join our agitation because they are already fed up with increasing taxes and uncontrollable inflation.”

Imran claimed that the ruling PML-N wanted to dilly-dally on the issue of ToRs. At the same time, it was trying to isolate the PTI in the parliamentary committee. “Let it be known to the government that people are with us,” he claimed.

PTI’s Vice Chairman Shah Mehmood Qureshi said on Friday after the seventh meeting of the parliamentary committee that the government wanted to the save the Sharif family. “I’ve concluded that this committee is of no use,” he said. “I’ve been extremely disappointed and will request the PTI chairman to part ways with the useless body.”

The government’s team members, however, blamed the PTI for the deadlock over ToRs. “The point of view of one opposition party does not reflect the will of the joint opposition,” said IT Minister Anusha Rehman after Friday’s meeting.

Railways Minister Saad Rafique said the opposition only had one target – the elected prime minister of Pakistan. He said the opposition only had a mandate to draft the ToRs not to assume the role of a judicial commission.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 12^th, 2016.