ISLAMABAD: The two main opposition parties — Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz and Pakistan Peoples Party — have sought parliament’s role in investigations to be carried out by a government-proposed commission on the Reko Diq issue, saying a similar probe be conducted in other such projects affected by court decisions causing huge losses to the country.

The demand made by opposition members during the one-day requisitioned session of the National Assembly here on Tuesday, however, did not receive any attention of Speaker Asad Qaiser or members of the government, who as usual in their speeches consumed most of the time in criticising the leadership of the two opposition parties for their alleged involvement in corruption and money laundering.

The session was requisitioned by the PML-N members on July 2 “to discuss the post-budget situation” in the country and the arrest of party’s Punjab president and MNA Rana Sanaullah, but most of the senior party members, including Opposition Leader Shahbaz Sharif, did not attend the sitting.

Minister says ANF has ‘complete evidence’ to prove charges against Rana Sanaullah

Before the start of the session, both the treasury and the opposition members had reached an understanding that the sitting would only continue for two hours and then the regular session of the house will begin from July 29

The demand for the parliament’s role in the probe into the Reko Diq case was made by former prime minister Raja Pervez Ashraf, who also recalled as to how during the hearing of the case in the Supreme Court he had pleaded before the then chief justice Iftikhar Chaudhry for more than an hour, telling him that it was an international issue and any decision could have adverse effects on the country.

Expressing concern over the decision of the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes tribunal to slap $5.97 billion award against Pakistan in the Reko Diq case, Mr Ashraf held the then chief justice entirely responsible for this loss, alleging that Mr Chaudhry had issued the verdict only due to his “personal ego”.

Mr Ashraf said the terms of reference (ToR) of the proposed commission announced by Prime Minister Imran Khan on the Reko Diq case issue should be finalised and approved by the parliament after a thorough discussion.

He said that even a joint sitting of the parliament could also be convened to discuss this important matter. He said no politician was responsible for this fiasco and the people should also know that only politicians should not be blamed for every bad thing happening in the country.

When Mr Ashraf called for only the parliament’s oversight, parliamentary leader of the PML-N Khawaja Asif asked Speaker Asad Qaiser to form a special committee of the house to discuss and investigate not only the Reko Diq case, but other cases such as Karaoke, Broadsheet and Pakistan Steel Mills’ privatisation which caused huge losses to the country.

Mr Asif said Pakistan had to suffer $850m to $900m loss due to the Karaoke ship dispute. Similarly, he said, the country had recently been imposed fines of trillions of rupees in the Broadsheet and Reko Diq cases. He warned that decisions on more such cases could be announced against Pakistan in near future.

The PML-N MNA from Sialkot said the parliamentary committee should investigate all those people who were in governments at the time of these decisions, saying that the PML-N leaders were ready to appear before it.

He accused the government of pursuing a “vendetta” against opposition leaders and called for even-handed accountability. Referring to the removal of accountability court judge Arshad Malik over a video scandal, the PML-N member regretted that “while the judge has been sent back, Nawaz Sharif is still in jail”.

The PML-N’s parliamentary leader also lashed out at the government for implicating the party MNA from Faisalabad Rana Sanaullah in what he called a false narcotics case. He regretted that when the opposition talked about cooperation, the government members said the opposition wanted a deal. He said the opposition did not want any deal and would “fight this battle till the end”. He said the opposition members had faced jails in the past and they were still ready to face it.

Taking the floor, Minister of State for Anti-Narcotics Shehryar Afridi claimed that the Anti-Narcotics Force (ANF) had “complete evidence” to pro­­­ve charges against Rana Sana­ul­lah, who was caught “red handed” while carrying narcotics in his car after three weeks of surveillance. He said the evidence, including video foo­tage, would be produced in the court.

PML-N’s Ahsan Iqbal asked the speaker to issue the production orders of all arrested MNAs, including Rana Sanaullah, and issue a ruling that in future every arrested member of parliament would be allowed to attend the sitting until he was convicted and deseated.

Published in Dawn, July 17th, 2019