ISLAMABAD: A government-opposition showdown is expected in a meeting of a Senate committee which is set to take up on Thursday a controversial bill seeking formation of a judicial commission to investigate into Panamagate.

The Senate’s Standing Committee on Law and Justice headed by Javed Abbasi of the Pakistan Muslim League-N will take up the bill titled “Panama Papers Inquiries Act 2016”, according to the agenda of the meeting issued by the Senate secretariat.

The bill was introduced by the opposition in the upper house on Sept 26 after it defeated the government in the voting by a margin of 13 votes.

Senate Chairman Raza Rabbani had allowed Opposition Leader Aitzaz Ahsan to introduce the bill on behalf of all opposition parties after a vote count in which 32 members voted in its favour and 19 against it.

Interestingly, the committee has invited all movers of the bill. Thus the Thursday’s meeting will be attended by 41 opposition members besides treasury members.

The bill has been signed by members of all opposition parties, except the Muttahida Qaumi Movement and the Balochistan National Party (Mengal).

Speaking in favour of the bill after its opposition by the government in the Senate, Mr Ahsan had said the revelations contained in the Panama Papers leaks had not been made by the opposition and it was an independent investigative organisation of journalists which had published the names of those Pakistanis who owned off-shore companies.

He said the opposition had decided to move the private members’ bill as it believed that the Panamagate could not be thoroughly investigated under the existing law.

He claimed that the bill was not discriminatory or politically-motivated as it sought investigations against all those Pakistanis whose names had appeared in the Panama Papers. But Law Minister Zahid Hamid opposed the bill, saying there were many flaws in the draft which was “discriminatory” and aimed at “targeting” Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, whose name had not been even mentioned in the Panama Papers.

Published in Dawn, October 10th, 2016