ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) has decided, in principle, to pull out of the parliamentary committee on the Panama Papers commission and file references seeking disqualification of five members of the Sharif family, including Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, from parliament.

However, the final decision to quit the parliamentary committee will be taken by the party after consulting other opposition parties.

This was announced by Senate Opposition Leader Aitzaz Ahsan and PPP Secretary General Latif Khosa during a press briefing outside Zardari House on Thursday, following a meeting of the party’s senior leadership, presided by PPP chairperson Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari.

Aitzaz seeking to bring opposition parties on ‘one container’; Shah and Dar discuss appointment of ECP members

PPP Vice President Sherry Rehman, Information Secretary Qamar Zaman Kaira and former MNA Nadeem Afzal Chan were also present.

Mr Khosa said he was directed to file references with the ECP against Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif, Finance Minister Ishaq Dar and MNAs Hamza Shahbaz and Capt Mohammad Safdar, seeking their disqualification for submitting incorrect declarations of assets, taxes and properties.

Brandishing a sheaf of documents, Mr Khosa claimed that the party had collected evidence of all the properties owned by the Sharifs inside and outside the country, as well as details of their offshore holdings, their tax returns and the incorrect affidavits they had submitted to the ECP.

“The whole Sharif family has become ineligible to remain members of parliament. It is the ECP’s constitutional duty to prevent an ineligible person from sitting in the assemblies,” he said.

Mr Khosa said they had also compiled “contradictory statements” by various Sharif family members, including the prime minister’s wife Kulsoom Nawaz, daughter Maryam Nawaz and son Hussain Nawaz, about their properties and offshore companies.

Aitzaz Ahsan alleged that the government was using delaying tactics and was not serious about the formation of a judicial commission to probe the Panama Papers leaks.

Mr Ahsan claimed the opposition parties had shown a lot of flexibility and had even agreed to drop two clauses directly hitting the prime minister at the request of the government team. He said that later, the government provided its own draft of the terms of reference (ToR) for the proposed judicial commission.

Without giving details, he said the opposition had also agreed to three of four clauses proposed by the government, but the ruling party backed out of this agreement as well.

In response to a question about the possibility of launching street agitation alongside PTI chairman Imran Khan, Mr Ahsan said he was personally making efforts in this regard.

“I have already stated that I am making efforts to bring all the opposition (parties) on a single container,” he said, also naming the Muttahida Qaumi Mov­ement (MQM) and the Awami National Party (ANP) as potential partners.

He said they reached a decision either through consensus or “with a simple majority”, indicating that the opposition could launch an anti-government movement even if one or two parties did not agree to join.

NAB reference

Though, the party leaders only talked about disqualification references, party spokesperson Farhatullah Babar later announced that the PPP would also file a reference against the prime minister with the National Accountability Bureau (NAB).

“The ruling party has been thoroughly exposed and in its bid to protect an individual from accountability it is resorting to dangerous brinkmanship which can result in serious repercussions”, he quoted Mr Bhutto-Zardari as saying.

He said that it was decided that the petitions before the ECP and the NAB reference would be filed by Latif Khosa at the earliest.

The meeting also condemned the kidnapping of the son of the Sindh High Court chief justice and the killing of qawwal Amjad Sabri in Karachi, in quick succession.

This was the first formal meeting of the PPP on the Panama issue after the failure of the government-opposition parliamentary committee to reach a consensus on the ToR for the proposed judicial commission.

The meeting was attended by former prime minister Yousuf Raza Gillani, Faryal Talpur, Syed Khurshid Shah, Nayyar Bokhari, Naveed Qamar, Noor Alam Afridi, Aijaz Jakhrani, Faisal Karim Kundi and Farhatullah Babar.

Shah meets Dar

Earlier in the day, Finance Minister Ishaq Dar called on Opposition Leader in the National Assembly Syed Khurshid Shah, at the latter’s chamber in Parliament House.

Talking to reporters after their informal chat, the two leaders told reporters they had discussed the appointment of ECP members. Both said that they had shared names of possible candidates for the post of ECP members, which be made public soon after consultations with other political parties were completed.

When asked about the deadlocked talks over the proposed Panama Papers commission, Mr Dar hoped that the committee would meet next week to sort out their differences.

Published in Dawn, June 24th, 2016