ISLAMABAD, Jun 7 (APP): Federal Minister for Railways Khawaja
Saad Rafique Tuesday said the draft presented by the opposition
members of a parliamentary committee, for preparing Terms of
Reference (TORs), was person specific and was not meant to hold
accountability.
Speaking to media outside Parliament House after meeting of
the parliamentary committee, the minister called the draft of the
opposition extreme and person specific.
“It does not seem they want accountability,” he said adding
some members of the opposition were only targetting one person whose name was not even mentioned in the Panama papers.
According to National Assembly Secretariat, it was the sixth
meeting of the Parliamentary Committee on Panama Papers held on
Tuesday and the opposition members circulated a document titled
“Terms of Reference (As proposed by the Government and amended by
the Opposition)”.
During the discussion, the government members pointed out that
there was substantial difference between the ToRs circulated by the
government earlier and the ToRs circulated by the opposition.
Saad said the parliamentary committee will meet again on
Friday and the government members will give their opinion on TORs of
the opposition.
The government side has provided three documents related to
TORs while the opposition has come up with two drafts, he told.
If the opposition wants to resolve the issue, then the TORs
should not be person specific, he stressed.
Saad said only names of children of Prime Minister were mentioned
in the Panama papers, adding the opposition draft is an attempt to
defame Nawaz Sharif who is the most popular leader of Pakistan.
He said the government wanted to make a law on accountability
as a result of the TORs and the subsequent proceedings.
“We want to set up a judicial commission but unfortunately the
present draft of the opposition is more extreme than the previous
one.”
He said a certain opposition party should refrain from
destabilizing Pakistan as it was only trying to create storm in a
teacup.
“We know what is the thinking of that political party,” he
remarked.
He said the government members after holding meaningful
consultation will respond to the suggestions of the opposition at
the next meeting.
Federal Minister Zahid Hamid said the opposition raised the
issue of amendment in the income tax law.
He said Senator Ishaq Dar gave the explanation that the
changes in law were intended to align Pakistan with OECD countries
to get timely information about offshore companies.
Earlier speaking to the media, opposition member of the
committee Senator Aitzaz Ahsan said they have presented their
suggestions to the government, adding opposition agreed to three out
of four points of the government.
Senators Mohammad Ishaq Dar, Aitzaz Ahsan, Mir Hasil Khan
Bizenjo, Muhammad Ali Saif and Ilyas Ahmad Bilour and members of the
National Assembly Zahid Hamid, Khawaja Saad Rafique, Akram Khan
Durrani, Anusha Rehman Khan Advocate, Makhdoom Shah Mahmood Hussain Qureshi, Sahibzada Tariq Ullah and Ch. Tariq Bashir Cheema attended the meeting as members of the Committee.
