ISLAMABAD: Although the Pakis­tan Peoples Party (PPP) and the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) claim to be on the same page on the issue of Panamagate, the former is still not completely on board with the latter’s protest plan.

PPP leaders Syed Khurshid Shah and Aitzaz Ahsan on Tuesday told PTI vice chairman Shah Mehmood Qureshi that they would respond to his party’s formal invitation to participate in the Sept 3 anti-government rally in Lahore after consulting their top leadership.

Hours after Mr Qureshi’s meeting with the PPP leaders, PTI chairman Imran Khan announced that his party would hold a public meeting in Karachi’s Nishtar Park on Sept 6 to express solidarity with the country and to condemn MQM chief Altaf Hussain’s anti-Pakistan speech.

Public meeting in Karachi on Sept 6, says Imran

Sources in the PPP told Dawn that the party was reluctant to join the Sept 3 rally because of Imran Khan’s habit of taking “unilateral decisions”.

A senior PPP leader said that keeping in mind the outcome of the PTI’s 2014 sit-in against alleged rigging in the general elections, the party would have to be cautious while taking a decision about joining the PTI rally.

When asked if the party could nominate someone for a token participation in the Sept 3 rally, he said it also appeared to be difficult in the present circumstances because it would be seen as providing a “tacit support” to the PTI’s unilateral call.

Moreover, he added, other opposition parties such as the Awami National Party and the Muttahida Qaumi Movement had also distanced themselves from the PTI’s plan to hold rallies on the Panama issue.

He said the PPP leadership also considered the PTI’s decision to file a petition in the Supreme Court as “unwise”.

Talking to reporters after the meeting, the PPP and PTI leaders, however, claimed that there was a complete unity among the opposition parties on the Panama issue and all of them wanted an across-the-board accountability of all those who owned offshore companies as revealed by the Panama Papers.

Mr Qureshi said the parliamentary committee formed by the National Assembly speaker to draft terms of reference (ToR) for the proposed judicial commission on Panamagate had “met premature death due to the government’s stubbornness”.

“The ToR committee is now a dead horse,” he said, adding that the MQM had already come out of the committee whereas Jamaat-i-Islami had decided to approach the apex court after getting disappointed from the committee.

Mr Qureshi said the PTI would completely support the bill drafted by Aitzaz Ahsan for formation of the Panama commission and it would soon be moved in the Senate as a private member’s bill.

He said the PTI would also move a resolution in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly over the Panama scam.

Published in Dawn, August 31st, 2016