ISLAMABAD: The opposition Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) submitted on Thursday another privilege motion to the National Assembly Secret­ariat against Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif for allegedly lying to the parliament on the Panama Papers leaks issue.

The motion was moved by opposition members a week before the National Assembly’s new winter session which begins on Jan 26.

During its previous session in December last year, the National Assembly had failed to take up any of the agenda items during its six sittings because of noisy protests by opposition parties over the Panama issue after Speaker Sardar Ayaz Sadiq did not allow the opposition to move similar privilege motions against the prime minister while declaring the matter as “sub judice”.

Previously, the PPP and the PTI had submitted the motions separately whereas this time, besides two major opposition parties, smaller parties such as the Awami Natio­nal Party (ANP), Pakis­tan Muslim League-Q, Qaumi Watan Party (QWP) and Jamaat-i-Islami (JI), have jointly moved the motion.

The new privilege motion carries signatures of eight members of opposition parties, including Opposition Leader Syed Khurshid Shah, PTI’s Shah Mehmood Qureshi, PPP’s Syed Naveed Qamar, QWP chief Aftab Sherpao and ANP’s Ghulam Ahmed Bilour.

In their motion, a copy of which is available with Dawn, the opposition members alleged that the plea taken by the prime minister’s lawyer in the Supreme Court on Jan 16 to do away with the PM’s speech delivered in the National Assembly using Article 66 as a shield is an “admission that the prime minister did not tell the truth to the assembly”.

Quoting excerpts of the prime minister’s speech made on April 22 last year, the movers alleged that the details shared by the prime minister’s counsel in the Supreme Court were in sheer contrast with those provided by Mr Sharif on the floor of the august house “which illustrates that the prime minister has wilfully deceived the house on the issue which is a clear case of contempt of the house”.

“As per Article 91(6) of the Constitution of Islamic Republic of Pakistan, the prime minister and cabinet are collectively responsible to the parliament and have to state the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth,” says the motion.

“This is a blatant breach of the privilege of the whole house and the matter should immediately be taken up for discussion and action.”

Talking to Dawn, PTI’s Vice Chairman Shah Mehm­ood Qureshi said that previously the speaker did not allow them to present the motions on the floor of the ho­use as per rules of business.

Quoting from the assembly rules, the PTI leader said that if a privilege motion was opp­osed by the government then the speaker was required to allow the mover to present arguments in support of the motion before giving any ruling, but the speaker did not even allow the movers to present their motions.

When asked that the speaker had rejected the previous motions terming them sub judice and he might do it again since the Panama Papers case was still being heard by the Supreme Court, Mr Qureshi said that opposition members would take up the matter with the speaker in the Business Advisory Commit­tee meeting to be held before the start of the NA session on Jan 26.

Published in Dawn, January 20th, 2017