ISLAMABAD: In an impassioned speech before the National Assembly, Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf chairman Imran Khan again presented himself for accountability alongside Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, saying he would go along with whatever terms of reference (ToR) were acceptable to the latter.

In a 50-minute diatribe on Panamagate, the PTI chairman also asked the National Assembly speaker to make Shaukat Khanum Memorial Cancer Hospital (SKMCH) part of the probe to clear its name once and for all. The government, of late, had stepped up attacks on the PTI leader over his alleged misuse of charity funds meant for the hospital. But unlike the opposition, which boycotted the house after the prime minister’s speech on Monday, Khawaja Mohammad Asif responded to the PTI chairman’s remarks. Mr Khan wasn’t around for that, since he left the house to travel to Muzaffarabad after delivering his speech.

Mr Khan began by hitting back at the treasury benches for their uncalled-for smear campaign against the hospital.

“Every time I raise the issue of corruption, the PML-N starts criticising SKMCH, the only cancer hospital in the country. For God’s sake, don’t forget that cancer has become the leading killer disease in the country; every seventh person here could have cancer,” Mr Khan deplored, pointing at the front rows of the treasury benches.

Explaining his ownership of an offshore company, the former cricketer said that he played professional cricket during the 1970s and 80s — for British counties and Kerry Packer in Australia — and purchased a flat in London from that income in 1983.

Khawaja Asif derides PTI chief for his vacillation on legal status of offshore companies

“Since I wasn’t a British citizen, when I was about to buy the flat in my name, my accountant informed me that I would have to pay inheritance tax and capital gains tax on it. He suggested that I buy this through an offshore company, since it was legal. But I have never hidden ownership of this flat ... which I sold in 2003 and brought its proceeds back home through legal banking channels.”

Moving on to the PM’s speech, he termed it “full of lies”, saying that had he delivered such a speech in a Western democracy, he would have been asked to resign for lying under oath.

The prime minister claimed that his family set up businesses in the UAE in the early 1970s, but according to Dr Mubashir Hassan, the then Pakistan Peoples Party finance minister, no official channels were used by the Sharif family to transfer funds, Mr Khan said.

In a 2011 declaration of assets, Mr Khan said, the prime minister had indicated that Maryam Safdar was his ‘dependent’, but didn’t mention that she was the beneficial owner of two offshore companies since 2005. “Saying that they were his dependant’s companies means that they were [effectively] Nawaz Sharif’s companies,” he said.

He said that the fact the PM was doing business while being prime minister was a blatant conflict of interest.

Brandishing the registries of the Sharifs’ properties in London, Mr Khan said the PM’s claim of purchasing them in 2005 was false, since those properties were purchased in the 1990s. These documents were then handed to the speaker by Shah Mehmood Qureshi.

Concluding his remarks, the PTI chief warned, “I cannot speak for other parties, but if investigations aren’t conducted into the Panama Papers leaks, my party come out on the streets.”

Khawaja Asif strikes back

It was then down to the witty Khawaja Mohammad Asif to defend the prime minister and his government, and he tore into the PTI chief’s speech with gusto.

On SKMCH, Mr Asif said that it was the shifty character of the PTI chief that had put not only his own reputation at stake, but had also affected the hospital, which was built with the contributions of the “the people of Pakistan, including members of the PML-N”.

The defence minister threw more brickbats at Mr Khan’s way, saying, “They will never spend their own money; when their own pockets are empty, they have their hands in other people’s pockets,” prompting giggles from the treasury benches.

Criticising Mr Khan in his signature humorous style, the defence minister said that the PTI chairman was losing his credibility and moral authority thanks to vacillating positions on various issues.

“During the dharna, he fervently criticised a business tycoon, but then used [the tycoon’s] plane for a trip to India. I am happy that he now respects opposition leader Khrusheed Shah, who he used to deride in his past speeches,” Mr Asif said.

Referring to the discovery of an offshore company in Mr Khan’s name, Mr Asif described Mr Khan as ‘meesna’, a colloquial Punjabi expression for someone who pretends to be innocent even though they know they are guilty. Mr Asif later had to withdraw his remark on the PTI’s insistence, and the speaker also ordered that it be expunged from the record.

“For one whole month, [Imran Khan] kept quiet about his offshore company.”

An offshore company is an offshore company, whether it is mentioned in the Panama Papers or not, the defence minister said, adding that as per the PTI chief’s definition, it was only acceptable when he set up an offshore company, but when others did the same, it was fraud. “Can you please give us the exact definition of an offshore company?” he asked, rhetorically.

Published in Dawn, May 19th, 2016